Rita Wilson Opens Up About Her And Tom Hanks' Coronavirus Battle
America's mom and dad, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, are recovering from the novel coronavirus and are ready to speak out about what it was like to contract the virus and come out on the other side. Wilson and Hanks were among the first celebs to announce that they had tested positive for the coronavirus, making an announcement on Instagram on March 11, 2020, and urging people to take it seriously.
The couple were in Australia at the time of their diagnosis. Hanks was working on Baz Luhrmann's untitled Elvis Presley biopic, per The Hollywood Reporter. "Hello, folks. @ritawilson and I are down here in Australia," Hanks wrote on Instagram. "We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive." They were then self-isolated in Australia before returning home to the United States.
On April 11, 2020, Hanks hosted a remote version of Saturday Night Live and just days later on April 14, 2020, Wilson appeared on CBS This Morning and spoke to Gayle King, sharing her personal experience with the disease.
Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks experienced fairly different symptoms
During her CBS This Morning interview in mid-April 2020, Rita Wilson was seemingly more than happy to open up about her experience with the coronavirus and advocate for others' health. The actress told Gayle King that her and Tom Hanks' symptoms ran the gamut of what health officials have shared with the public. Wilson said that, at first, she "felt extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn't want to be touched, and then the fever started." It reached 102 degrees by day nine and in addition to having "chills like [she] never had before," she also lost her sense of taste and smell, per CNN.
Meanwhile, her husband had a different experience, she added. Wilson said that Hanks "did not have as high a fever. He did not lose his sense of taste or smell, but it still took us the same time to get through it." It just goes to show that the novel coronavirus can affect everyone a little differently.
Wilson added that she and Hanks have fully recovered and believe themselves to be immune, although World Health Officials are still debating whether people who have the virus are immune after having it, per The Washington Post.
Rita Wilson says the coronavirus drugs may not have worked
To help treat her coronavirus symptoms, Rita Wilson was given chloroquine, but she is just as torn about the efficacy of the drug as health officials are. "I think people have to be very considerate about that drug," Wilson warned in her CBS This Morning interview. She said that she's not sure if it was helpful at all. "I don't know if the drug worked or if it was just time for the fever to break," the actress said. Mostly, she is concerned with the side effects she had, including vertigo and nausea. "I could not walk and my muscles felt very weak," Wilson added.
Chloroquine is normally used to treat malaria or lupus, but it has been brought up in the conversation surrounding coronavirus ever since President Trump said he had a feeling that it would work, per The New York Times. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of the drug in "emergency" situations, however, medical researchers still insist that there haven't been enough trials of the medicine yet and that there is only "anecdotal evidence" that it blocks the virus in lab tests, per BBC.
Rita Wilson is doing her part to help fight the coronavirus
In any case, it's all around good news that Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks are healthy now and sharing their coronavirus experience with Americans. WIlson told Gayle King that none of the rest of the family or staff tested positive for the coronavirus. Additionally, both she and her husband have donated blood to research for a coronavirus vaccine.
In addition to their blood donation, Wilson is also recording a remix of Naughty By Nature's "Hip Hop Hooray" to help the MusicCares Covid-19 Relief Fund, per the Los Angeles Times. While she was self-isolating, Wilson posted a video on Instagram of her rapping along to the iconic track – much to basically everyone's delight in late March 2020. She told King that she posted the video as a "brain exercise" to see if she could still remember the lyrics and didn't necessarily expect it to go viral. (But seriously, how did she not expect that to go viral?)
Between opening up about their coronavirus battle to filming rap videos and SNL monologues, Wilson and Hanks are truly the type of celebs the world needs right now.