Yesterday on CNN, a medical professional was underlining a point about the coronavirus which I found somewhat useful – while children are getting exposed to the virus and may even experience some symptoms, for the most part, kids are not experiencing the full brunt of the virus. The coronavirus is especially deadly for the elderly and the already immuno-compromised, but many younger people are merely getting what amounts to a cold. It is my hope that most of the people who test positive for the virus only experience it that way. I’m choosing to preface this story like that because I really, really don’t want to look up Tom Hanks’ age. Yes, the coronavirus has nut-punched Hollywood. Everybody’s dad Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the virus. He posted this message on his Instagram:
Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia. 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.
Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?
We’ll keep the world posted and updated.
Take care of yourselves!
Hanx!
Tom and Rita are in Australia – Gold Coast, to be more specific – because he’s playing Colonel Parker in the movie about Elvis Presley’s early years. Tom and Rita’s infection is such a big deal down in Oz that the local officials are doing press conferences about their quarantines and exposures.
Tom and Rita’s son Chet Haze – the rapper – gave everyone an update too. I thank him for not rapping about it! This is actually informative and gentle. Much love, Chet.
Tom Hanks' son Chet gave an update on his parent’s condition after they tested positive for #CoronaVirus.
More: https://t.co/FVBgMntUF4 pic.twitter.com/XQqO7JJioE
— Complex (@Complex) March 12, 2020
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’m looking forward to Biden’s presser today on his task force to deal with this pandemic. We desperately need leadership. Due to test kits not available and interminably slow results there are no doubt so many more exposed. Hanks and other celebrities get tests immediately., us peons not so much.
The lack of tests in the U.S. Is astounding. The Hanks only got tested because they happened to be in Australia. There is something VERY fishy about Trump and the lack of tests.
Trump’s is not into testing because to him numbers are more important than people. He wants to keep the stats low, meanwhile people in US are sick and dying.
Hanks got tested so quickly because he was here in Australia, not the US. 😉
Let’s not oversell Australia’s response.
Our fed and state governments refuse to run any government public health campaigns and people have been getting very mixed messages (at best) about testing – the federal health minister’s message for everyone with symptoms to get tested last weekend, is a case in point. Meanwhile they’ve been doing their best to dismantle and privatise our health sector, this will be a huge test of whether our compromised health system can cope.
Chaotic, reactive, uncoordinated. Our prime minister is at trump level of self-delusion if he thinks he’s overseeing a world class public health response.
i’m a highschool teacher and my government isn’t closing schools for now, though the country (Portugla) has already 78 cases is less than a week… I work in a school with 1400 students from primary school to 12th grade…. I have asthma and I’m scared for me and all my students… I don’t think people are taking it seriously enough…. Time will tell…
What a perfect video ❤️ What scares me is how highly contagious this virus appears to be. I work in a hospital, so I can’t work from home. Sending good vibes to everyone
Stay safe BB, i hope that you are being provided adequate PPE
TQ Slacker!
Stay safe BB
Stay safe BB!
I’m a nurse but I work from home during the weekday.
I’m near chicago, we have a case at hospital 10 min from me which is actually my main hospital I and my family get all our care.
I’m not worried yet about the virus. But I definitely am being more diligent with not touching my face. Stay diligent! Take care.
Thank you all! 😘
Wrong place… sorry…
I saw it on the news and this was a shocker. I hope they are taking care of themselves and get well soon. I like the Tweet and they are using their experience to inform and encourage others to take care of themselves. It also makes me angry about public figures that made stupid comments about COVID-19: Trump and Prince William to name two. This better serve as a wake up call that this can happen to them especially if they have been around others who have or may have been exposed.
I was so shocked when I heard it last night that I woke up my husband. I guess poor Tom is going to become the face of Coronavirus. It’s like we all know someone who has it now.
Luis Sepúlveda, a famous writer, novelist and film director from Chile is in an induced coma /sedated because of the coronavirus
I wonder who the first famous person to get it would be. really sad that it was America’s dad.
When I saw this last night I thought it was a joke. not tom hanks! I’m hoping its nothing but a minor flu feeling for him.
And yes, for most kids – and most healthy adults – its supposedly not much more than that – bad cold – but that’s the problem. People don’t realize they have it because of that and they pass it on to other people for whom it is a lot more dangerous. I was watching a clip of Fauci yesterday and just…yikes.
Me too! I figured it was just a viral lie that had spread. I hope that they’re doing well too – they just seem like genuinely nice people. I think this was actually the first time that I felt a little bit of real nervousness. Like, I’ve had thoughts about what we’d need to do if we were quarantined or whatever, and I’ve been washing my hands like crazy and just doing the normal preventative measures. But I think actually seeing a really familiar face (he HAS to be one of the most well known actors of our time, right?) telling people that they contracted the virus made it just feel a lot more real, I guess? Not that I thought it was a joke before or anything, but it added a different level of concern for it. I’ve been dealing with a lot of stuff at work, so I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about it other than preventative measures.
For most cases the symptoms are not severe but even young people can get pneumonia. Italy’s patient 1 was a 38 year old athlete and it took weeks for him to be able to breathe on his own. If am not wrong, there’s also someone in their 20s that needed to be intubated.
I know no one knows yet, but I’m very curious and concerned about the long term impacts. Is the lung damage permanent? Also, there’s been talk of reinfection- is it that, or is this a chronic virus that flares up and never leaves you, like varicella? That would be much more concerning for me. And- there are apparently multiple strains- how will a vaccine deal with that?!
I read from reports in Italy, that it does leave permanent scaring in the lungs.
@Kristina, you can be reinfected with this Coronavirus…meaning you can get it, clear it, but then get it again. It does not linger in your body, though.
Thank you for the info, Nic123!
Thank you, @mumzy!
Ugh, I saw this on Twitter last night and because there’d already been a false rumor about Daniel Radcliffe testing positive for the coronavirus, I was hoping this was a hoax too. Here’s hoping this is no more than a bad cold for Tom, Rita, and most people who get it.
All the best to them..hope it stays mild. Stay safe everyone
How amazing that they have it mildly. It is so great to know that that is what most humans can expect. That is wonderful. XO
I know a small number have it quite seriously but I find it good news about The Hanks’ condition. Let’s hope all of us just get “the sniffles and odd chills”.
They only just tested positive, it can still get worse and become pneumonia
Most definitely it will get worse for them before it gets better. Here is a “numbers heavy” article backed up by a physics professor (in the comments) stressing quick action and what happened to Italy due to inattention.
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert has tested positive for the virus. Teams that played the Jazz within the past two weeks have been ordered to self-quarantine. The NBA season is over. I suspect the league and teams have insurance to cover the huge financial loss this involves but it puts a substantial dent in the economy, not just the millions of dollars the concessions at the venues make but ushers and concession workers don’t get paid if they don’t work. Restaurants and bars around the stadiums and the people who work in them take a huge hit when a sports season is interrupted
At least one of the NBA owners – Marc Cuban – has stated that he is working to find a way to make sure the hourly employees – security, concessions, etc. will get paid. I can’t see James Dolan (NY Knicks/Rangers) doing the same – at least not voluntarily.
I saw.the video of the infected player purposely touching media microphones during a press conference two or three days ago. He was mocking the virus, and is the one who has tested positive. I find that as karmic as the Gaetz stunt with the gas mask.
It’s also hitting the arts hard, and most companies don’t have the reserves that a sports team does. Cancelled performance seasons will be the end for many arts organizations.
Freelance sports broadcaster here. I should be on my way to Milwaukee, but nope… just lost a bunch dates from my calendar and have had weeks of other gigs cancelled as well. This hurts a lot and watching my coworkers around the country wide-eyed and trying not to get panicked is not fun
Some big names here in Australia are in lockdown because of this, not names you would recognise in the US, but big names here. They’ve given the Channel 9 studios a clean (probably needed it anyway) and sent home the on-air talent who interviewed Rita Wilson and/or whose dressing room she used etc. Best wishes to Hanks and Wilson for their recovery, and hope transmission was minimised.
I feel bad for those businesses that depend on NBA games. I’m sure those people can’t afford to lose the rest of the season.
All the ushers and concessions workers. All the hotel workers. All the restaurants and bars near the venues. This hits them hard. But I still think Adam Silver made the right call. A colleague sat near the Utah Jazz bench Friday night. He said they had giant buckets of Purell and were wiping it all over themselves constantly. Every team that has played them in the past two weeks is in self-quarantine.
Oh no!! Much love and best wishes to them. May they stay safe. I’m sure they’ll get through this.
I read somewhere that trump refused WHO’s offer of test kits because “we’ll make our own” and that he owns stock in the company intended to make it. Can anyone verify?
I was reading references to that several days ago, but don’t know if anyone confirmed it. Supposedly Orange and/or kids own stock in a private company that produces tests.
I’m going to go look into this now!
Yes
I have heard this as well. I have a feeling it will turn out to be true.
I looked this up and it appears not to be true that he currently owns stocks in the company that makes the tests.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-profit-covid-19/
And here is a more detailed investigation:
https://shero.substack.com/p/trump-could-profit-from-coronavirus
Thanks for the research. The family is such a vile gaggle of scumbags that I would not be surprised to find that stock owned by one of the grifter spawn or melanie or jared or simply not listed by POSOTUS. Oh, what am I saying? I’m sure all his financials are strictly above board.
There are likely financial deals in the works, though. Trump is solely transactional. Alex Azar (Secretary of Health and Human Services) was president of the pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly. I think we’re at the mercy of a perfect storm here–Putin’s directives to Trump to crush U.S. society + greedy pharma execs cornering the testing and vaccine markets.
Didn’t Rita have breast cancer? I hope her immune system has recovered from treatment. Wishing them the very best. They seem to be really good people.
I suspect one of the reason tests aren’t readily available in the US is not just the initial incompetent response of the Trump administration, but its perfidy. Trump doesn’t want tests to be widely available because he wants to “keep the numbers down.”
I’m glad they were able to get tested. Wishing Tom & Rita a quick recovery.
Tom Hanks is diabetic apparently?
That is not good…
He seems ok now but it can take a week for symptoms to increase as the illness is slow-progressing.
They better be ok!
I appreciate them being public about it, I hope it opens some eyes because not everyone is taking it seriously.
It sounds as though their symptoms are minor so far, I hope they are resting and it doesn’t get worse.
My husband is in the military and we just got back from Italy a little over a week ago. He has all of the symptoms and has already gotten his carpool buddy sick. When he went to the doctor on base they told him they’re not testing for “mild symptoms” and then his command told him to stop complaining about his tummy ache. Ironically they sent me a stupid newsletter saying to stay home if sick. Ok BUT HOW.
You should notify the media. That is horrible.
Omg I hope they get better. The reports about over 50s being in high risk must be so scary to hear for those in that age bracket. It goes to show that a disease will not discriminate and whether you’re poor/rich, young/old..etc you can get it.
I hope they get better and beat this virus.
Was just watching him in “Saving Mr Banks” where he played Walt Disney, good movie.
Not to sound all tin foil hat but, what’s going on is just the beginning. The reality is that the danger is not from your co-workers or people who’ve traveled. The real danger is from people that do jobs where they have high public contact, no healthcare, and no sense of financial stability. Restaurant workers and retail workers. People that rely on jobs such as these are probably not going to get tested in a timely manner because going to the doctor requires more time and money than they have. These people also are often in a position that means one missed shift could cause them financial disaster. I am worried that with all the planning being done nobody seems to be addressing that.
I’m REALLY surprised that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got it. It’s making me wonder who else has it and doesn’t know it. i haven’t been sick recently, but about a week-ish ago, I did feel under the weather, and I worried then if I had it and I worry now. I don’t have any way to get tested. All my classes and lectures have moved online now. Here’s hoping things start to get better sooner rather than later.
OK, Minnesota here. Mayo Clinic has once again made all folks in MN proud today saying Mayo will be gearing up and producing more tests ASAP.
Go Mayo!
Tom is showing good common sense here by informing but not hitting the panic button.
Trump, as usual, is a complete idiot on all counts. Ignore The Orange One people.
Use good hand washing, common sense, etc.
And yes, Minnesota is closing public activities, etc.
Better safe than sorry, I say.
This is new territory, let’s be smart in doing all we can to keep ourselves healthy.
“Social distancing” is the new phrase I am seeing today….This is me most of the time, I am a born homebody and life long introvert. Be safe all.
Parts of Canada are shutting down schools for three weeks (next week is March break- vacations- and two following weeks). Other parts ordered people to work from home for two weeks after they came back from traveling- wherever they came from. People are calm but starting to self-isolate and work from home. I believe it is best to do it now rather than wait and being forced to doing it anyways. That being said, PM Trudeau’s wife tested positive today after a trip abroad.
And now Justin Trudeau’s wife has tested positive, as well.