TRIVIUM’s MATT HEAFY Says U.S. Is ‘Way, Way Behind’ In Its Response To Coronavirus Pandemic

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In a brand new interview with Finland's Kaaos TV, TRIVIUM frontman Matt Heafy was asked if he has been following the news closely about the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in his community. He responded (hear audio below): "I do my best to make sure I try to get as much information as I can from sources that I trust. That's the big thing nowadays. If people want to try to delve into things, there's so much misinformation out there, which is really unfortunate. Even if it is a news outlet, it could be biased or based in something else. So I try to read as many factual things. Especially when it comes to something like a pandemic, I try to read things more from accredited scientists or epidemiologists or things that are not based upon something that could have a skewed side. So I'd like to feel like I am decently educated or up to speed with this." Heafy also went on to say that it is not actually social distancing that we're being asked to do right now, but rather we are asked to be doing physical distancing to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. "I read an article that the term 'social distancing' makes people turn inward and eventually completely isolate themselves, where I like the idea of physical distancing more — [staying] six-plus feet away from human beings and staying socially connected through things like FaceTime calls or text groups or something," he explained. "Or what I do with my Twitch channel — allowing people to still be connected in a way where they're able to be physically apart but still be connected through social connectivity versus being completely isolated…. That's so important to keep up — it keeps up morale and keeps the psychology of people happier than just being, like, 'All right. This is scary. I'm sealed off from the world. I can't talk to anybody.' So that's why I've been really encouraging people to go more for physical distancing." He continued: "The way I've been saying this to everyone that I know, to everyone that wants to listen or to our fans or to my friends, I've been saying this is not the end of the world, but it's also not something that should be brushed off. It's somewhere in the middle, and it should be taken very seriously, and we should do everything we can to get this thing over with." When the interviewer expressed predicted that people will learn something from the coronavirus crisis, Heafy responded: "I hope so. I think that there are gonna be many countries that are ahead of the curve and doing very well. Unfortunately, the U.S. is way, way behind. Our pandemic task force was dismantled a year ago, and our CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] had its budgets cut a year ago. So, it's, like, how can you get ahead of something when you set it up to fail like that? Thankfully, people are listening now. But it seems to be the story of everywhere — it seems every country that there was a rampant outbreak of it and things turned bad. The story that I generally always hear is that people didn't take it seriously at first." TRIVIUM will release its ninth album, "What The Dead Men Say", on April 24 via Roadrunner Records. The LP will be the follow-up to "The Sin And The Sentence", which came out in October 2017. That effort marked the band's first release with drummer Alex Bent, who joined TRIVIUM in 2016.