Tom Hanks is speaking out about the importance of the COVID-19 protocols during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Oscar-winning actor, who recovered from COVID-19 after announcing in early March that he and his wife had tested positive for the disease caused by coronavirus, spoke about the importance of wearing a mask during a press conference promoting his new movie, Greyhound.
“There’s really only three things we can do in order to get to tomorrow: Wear a mask, social distance, wash our hands,” Hanks said Tuesday.
“Those things are so simple, so easy, if anybody cannot find it in themselves to practice those three very basic things – I just think shame on you. Don’t be a p—y. Get on with it, do your part. It’s very basic. If you’re driving a car, you don’t go too fast, you use your turn signal and you avoid hitting pedestrians. My Lord, it’s common sense,” Hanks said, according to People.
He also gave an update on how he and wife Rita Wilson are doing months after their diagnosis.
“Oh, as the canaries in the coal mine for the COVID-19 experience, we are fine,” he said.
“We had about 10 days of very uncomfortable symptoms. Not life-threatening, we’re happy to say. We were isolated in order to keep an eye on ourselves because if our temperatures had spiked, if our lungs had filled, if any number of things had gone wrong with this, we would have needed expert medical care,” Hanks continued. “We didn’t. I guess we were model recoverers from COVID-19, but we were also isolated so that we would not give it to anybody else that we came in contact with, and since then have been doing the same isolating, social distancing that is being asked of the world so, we are fine.”
In April, Hanks and Wilson donated their blood to help medical researchers develop a vaccine to fight the coronavirus.
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The Cast Away actor spoke on the NPR Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! podcast about their participation, saying: “We just found out that we do carry the antibodies.
“We have not only been approached, we have said, ‘Do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?’ And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hanks-ccine,” Hanks said.
Wilson previously said doctors have told her she could be “immune” to the novel coronavirus now that she’s had it.
“Well, that’s what they told us and that’s what the belief is,” she said of possible immunity. “We recently have been part of a study where we’ve donated our blood, and we’re waiting to hear back if our antibodies will be helpful in developing a vaccine, but also if we are able to donate plasma that can be used as donation to other people who are suffering from the virus because we are immune.”
Hanks spoke with The National Defense radio show about his and his wife’s experiences with COVID-19, sharing that it affected them both in different ways.
“Rita went through a tougher time than I did,” he said. “She had a much higher fever. She had lost her sense of taste and sense of smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks.”
Hanks said he “had some bad body aches and was very fatigued, and that’s how the COVID-19 went through us.”
He said that Wilson’s condition and the side effects she experienced from chloroquine, a drug that has been used since the 1940s to prevent and treat malaria as well as to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, led to his wife being “so nauseous.” The drug is currently being used as a treatment for COVID-19, however, its effectiveness has not yet been proven.
“She was so nauseous she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities, and it lasted a while,” Hanks said.
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Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out.
In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus.
For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.
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