Actor Daniel Dae Kim says he is recovering after testing positive for coronavirus and that he believes the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine helped his recovery.
Daniel Dae Kim, 51, took to Instagram on Sunday to post an update on his health after announcing last week that he tested positive for COVID-19.
In his new Instagram video, Kim thanked fans for their support and said that he now felt “practically back to normal.”
“I am happy to report that my progress has continued and I feel practically back to normal. I am lucky to be in the 80 percent of diagnosed cases that have not required hospitalization, that’s an important statistic,” he said.
He continued: “I’ve pretty much been staying in bed, taking my medication, but as of now I have no symptoms other than a little residual congestion which should clear of very soon.”
Kim, who is known for playing Chin Ho Kelly on CBS’s Hawaii Five-0 and Jin-Soo Kwon on ABC’s Lost, explained that he was placed under strict quarantine after he took ill last week, but that now he was looking forward to reuniting with his family.
He also expressed relief that he did not infect any member of his family before he went into quarantine.
“Happy to report they are still symptom-free and just bored like the rest of us.”
Daniel Dae Kim believes that hydroxychloroquine helped
Kim went on to reveal that his doctors administered a cocktail of drugs while he was under treatment. The cocktail included Tamiflu (an antiviral), azithromycin (an antibiotic), and a glycopyrrolate inhaler.
Kim said that the single inclusion in the drug cocktail he believed to be the “secret weapon” was the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. Until recently, hydroxychloroquine was widely used in malaria-endemic zones of the world to treat the debilitating illness.
Kim added that doctors in Korea have successfully used hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus.
However, he cautioned his viewers about his opinion on the efficacy of chloroquine, saying he was not a medical expert.
“I won’t say that it’s a cure and I won’t say definitively that you should go out and use this, but what I will say is that I believe it was crucial to my recovery. I believe the entire mixture of drugs was crucial to my recovery.”
President Trump’s comments about hydroxychloroquine
Daniel Dae Kim’s comments about the role he believed that hydroxychloroquine played in his treatment come amid ongoing controversy after President Donald Trump suggested that the drug could be effective — in combination with the antibiotic Azithromycin — for treating coronavirus infection.
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains – Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
But Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist who is a member of the White Coronavirus Task Force, later said that no controlled clinical trials had been done to confirm the claim that hydroxychloroquine was effective against coronavirus. He added that claims being made were only “anecdotal.”
Kim is the latest celebrity to recover from illness after testing positive for coronavirus. Tom Hanks revealed to his fans on Twitter that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, were feeling better after receiving treatment in Australia.
— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) March 23, 2020
Actress Olga Kurylenko and Idris Elba were also diagnosed with coronavirus.
Kurylenko said in a recent update that she has recovered. Idris Elba also denied reports that he was in critical condition.