He is the one who masks.
Bryan Cranston has revealed that he contracted COVID-19 “a little while ago” — and he wants everyone to mask up and practice social distancing.
The decorated Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor perhaps best known for playing chemistry teacher turned meth dealer Walter White on the critically-acclaimed AMC series “Breaking Bad” said he became infected despite being “pretty strict in adhering to the protocols.”
“I contracted the virus. Yep,” he wrote in an Instagram
FB,
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post on Thursday, adding “it sounds daunting now that over 150,000 Americans are dead because of it. I was one of the lucky ones. Mild symptoms.”
And he urged his 2.5 million followers to “keep wearing the damn mask, keep washing your hands, and stay socially distant.”
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“We can prevail — but ONLY if we follow the rules together.”
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What’s more, he revealed in a video accompanying his post that he recently donated his plasma to the UCLA Blood & Platelet Center, because his blood has the COVID-19 antibodies.
Researchers are studying whether convalescent plasma from recovered coronavirus patients could reduce the severity of COVID-19 illnesses in sick patients by boosting their ability to fight off the virus.
Convalescent plasma has been used to treat ebola and flu patients during past viral outbreaks. And preliminary studies have found that convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients is generally safe to use, and appears to raise the survival rate of those hospitalized with COVID-19. The FDA could even authorize the emergency use of the antibody-rich plasma for emergency use in COVID-19 patients as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Cranston documented part of his roughly hour-long donation procedure in the video clip, and explained the process in a ticker scrolling beneath the video.
Basically, the donor’s blood is taken and separated into three parts (including the plasma, platelets and red blood cells) by a centrifuge. The doctors then take the plasma, and the platelets and red blood cells are returned back to the donor.
“Pretty neat huh?” Cranston’s ticker reads.
The center was able to collect 840 milliliters from Cranston during his visit. “Beautiful…liquid gold,” Cranston says, eying the bag of honey-colored plasma. “Hopefully it can do some good.”
He then wraps the video with, “Have you had COVID-19? This is something that you might be able to do to.”
Watch it here: