Daniel Dae Kim Reveals Coronavirus Diagnosis
Another well-known actor has been sickened by the covid-19 pandemic. Daniel Dae Kim, known from shows like Lost and Hawaii 5-0, announced online that he discovered his recent illness was, in fact, coronavirus.
In a tweet, he claimed he was “ready for a fight” and then took to Instagram for a ten-minute video documenting his case and his condition. Kim says he was working in New York City on a television series (playing a doctor working in a hospital during a flu pandemic, ironically) when the show was put on hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak. He flew home to Hawaii, and along the way began to exhibit minor symptoms. He isolated in his house, and when the symptoms got worse, he called his doctor, and then went to a drive-through testing center in Honolulu. Eventually, the results came back positive for coronavirus.
Today’s New York Times had an article about how while testing remains in very short supply around the country, celebrities and pro athletes seem to be disproportionately able to get tested even when asymptomatic — which is not supposed to happen for anyone at this point. Kim says the backlash received by other celebrities who’ve gotten tested made him consider not coming forward with his story, but he ultimately decided it was more important to be honest and to encourage people to follow social distancing guidelines and promote public health.
As you can see in the video, Kim is also recovering from the virus after several days under the weather. (He says he’s not 100 percent, but he’s close.) Thankfully, he properly isolated himself from the rest of his family as soon as he got home, and none of them caught it.
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