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'A Very Different World:' Jared Leto Emerges From 12-Day Desert Meditation To Find Coronavirus Pandemic

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The coronavirus pandemic has swept the globe, shutting down countries and affecting all facets of American life — but at least one person was unaware of what was happening: actor Jared Leto.

On Twitter Monday, Leto said had just emerged from a 12-day silent meditation in the desert.

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US actor/musician Jared Leto arrives for the 2019 LACMA Art+Film Gala at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles on November 2, 2019. (Photo by Jean-Baptiste LACROIX / AFP) (Photo by JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX/AFP via Getty Images)

"We were totally isolated. No phone, no communication etc," Leto wrote on Twitter. "We had no idea what was happening outside the facility."

https://twitter.com/JaredLeto/status/1239785964169342976

Since Leto entered the silent meditation retreat in the desert, most of California's schools have been shut down, along with dine-in restaurants, movie theaters, clubs, gyms and other leisure venues; people have been warned to not gather in groups of more than 10, and toilet paper and bottled water have become hot commodities that are impossible to find in stores. In California alone, 13 people have died and 598 have tested positive for coronavirus.

Beyond California, whole countries have been shut down, the travel and leisure industries are reeling, and the death toll continues to mount across the country.

Leto's shock at what he found after just 12 days of being incommunicado in the desert illustrates the speed with which the world has changed.

"Walked out yesterday into a very different world. One that's been changed forever. Mind blowing - to say the least," Leto tweeted.

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