Hawaii Five-O star Daniel Dae Kim has announced in an Instagram video that he’s tested positive for the coronavirus. The actor was in good spirits while talking to fans, and even joked about the irony of his situation. Kim had just been in New York filming New Amsterdam where he plays a doctor trying to fight a flu pandemic.
According to Kim, it was while flying back home to Hawaii that he noticed a scratchiness in his throat, prompting him to self-quarantine out of caution. In the following days, he began to experience more severe symptoms including a tightness in his chest and a high fever. Fortunately, Honolulu had just opened a drive-thru testing center, which allowed the actor to get quickly tested and learn that he does, in fact, have the coronavirus. Kim then had stern words for young people who are brushing off the outbreak. Via Variety:
“For all those out there, especially teenagers and millennials who think this is not serious, please know that it is,” he said in his 10-minute video. “And if you treat this without care, you are potentially endangering the lives of millions of people, including your loved ones. So for the sake of everyone else, please follow the guidelines: socially distance, self-isolate, stop touching your face, and of course, wash your hands.”
Kim also strongly denounced racist attacks against the Asian community and took a not-so-subtle jab at President Trump for referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus”:
“Please, please stop the prejudice and senseless violence against Asian people,” said Kim. “Randomly beating elderly, sometimes homeless Asian Americans is cowardly, heartbreaking and inexcusable. Yes, I’m Asian, and yes I have coronavirus, but I did not get it from China. I got it in America. In New York City. And despite what some political leaders want to call it, I don’t consider the place where it’s from as important as the people who are sick and dying. If I did, I would call this thing the New York virus, but that would be silly. The point is, the name-calling gets us nowhere. What matters is how best to take care of ourselves and one another.”
In an awkward twist, Kim’s diagnosis arrived on the heels of his Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly announcing that she refuses to self-isolate her family while also sharing her suspicion that the coronavirus is an election year conspiracy engineered to steal our freedoms under “Marshall Law.” It was a whole thing.
You can watch Kim’s full Instagram video below:
(Via Variety)
