Rita Wilson has narrated her experience with the coronavirus pandemic alongside her husband after they both earlier tested positive for the virus.
The Hollywood couple had been the first high-profile stars to share their diagnosis publicly early in March from Australia, where they had been working at the time, just as the coronavirus pandemic was ramping up in the United States. Fans kept up with their recovery thanks to social media statements, often calm and collected with a splash of humour, from the longtime pair.
Two weeks later, they were both released from the hospital after undergoing treatment for the virus.
Since their return to their home, they had not disclosed many details about their fight with the deadly virus in the process. However, Wilson recalled the battle in a new interview with CBS This Morning‘s Gayle King.
Wilson speaks on symptoms
“I was very tired. I felt extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched and then the fever started,” Wilson recalled to King. Noting she experienced chills like she had never had before.
“Looking back, I also realized that I was losing my sense of taste and smell,” she said. Her fever had also gotten close to 102. Around day nine, Wilson was given chloroquine. “I can only tell you that I don’t know if the drug worked or it was just time for the fever to break,” she said. “But, my fever did break.”
The star also cautioned about the “extreme side effects” she suffered from the chloroquine, including nausea; vertigo, muscle weakness and the inability to walk. “I think people have to be very considerate about that drug. We don’t really know if it’s helpful in this case,” she told King.
As for her famous husband, Tom Hanks experienced “milder coronavirus symptoms,” Wilson said. She added that he didn’t have as high of a fever and did not lose his sense of taste or smell. However, it took the same amount of time for the husband and wife to get through the virus.
As for how they contract the virus, they were told it was through somebody they both were exposed to at the same time. However, they don’t know when or where it happened, noting none of their close contacts have tested positive for coronavirus.
Now recovered, the two were part of a study using their donated blood. They are waiting to hear about whether their antibodies will be helpful in developing a vaccine; and if their plasma can be donated to others battling the disease.
Wilson is currently helping those affected by the coronavirus pandemic in the music community. Watch the interview below.
