Kathy Griffin has been released from a Los Angeles hospital where she was being kept in isolation for what she described as “unbearably painful symptoms” of coronavirus. She is now recovering at home from an apparent abdominal infection. But Griffin says she still has no idea if she has coronavirus thanks to the ongoing nationwide shortage of testing kits.
Earlier this week, Griffin took to Twitter to refute a tweet from Donald Trump, in which he falsely claimed more patients have been tested for coronavirus in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.
“He’s lying,” she wrote. “I was sent to the #COVID19 isolation ward room in a major hospital ER from a separate urgent care facility after showing UNBEARABLY PAINFUL symptoms. The hospital couldn’t test me for #coronavirus because of CDC (Pence task force) restrictions. #TESTTESTTEST.”
He’s lying. I was sent to the #COVID19 isolation ward room in a major hospital ER from a separate urgent care facility after showing UNBEARABLY PAINFUL symptoms. The hospital couldn’t test me for #coronavirus because of CDC (Pence task force) restrictions. #TESTTESTTEST https://t.co/18fRiOBsdN pic.twitter.com/0sU9fHu4r0
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) March 25, 2020
Now, speaking to the LA Times, Griffin says she was shocked by the lack of personal protective equipment in the hospital’s COVID-19 unit. Some workers, she says, were not even wearing masks.
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“Frankly, when they said the corona ward, I thought I would be walking into the white suits with blue-taped ceilings, everything,” she recalls. “I kind of expected them to put me in a shower room and all that–but as recently as [Tuesday], there’s no cavalry that’s coming in handing out millions of [test] swabs.”
Griffin says a chest X-ray found her lungs were clear, but an abdominal CT scan found she had an infection. After being given the option to stay in the hospital, where she may or may not eventually receive a coronavirus test, she chose to return home and self-isolate instead.
“The doctor was going through the boxes and going through the boxes [on a form] and she kept saying, like, ‘Ugh, because of the lungs, the fever and the kind of cough … you don’t meet the CDC requirements,’” Griffin says.
“The realization when they told me the guidelines was, ‘Wow … I now know not to come back unless my lungs are full with what feels like pieces of shattered mirror, unless I can’t breathe and unless my fever is 103 … They’re not making the rules at all. That’s a frightening feeling.”
Griffin says it’s “so obvious” that more testing kits are needed and that they much be accessible to everybody.
“A lot of people, when they hear the president saying everyone who needs a test should get one, then shouldn’t have to then go to a hospital where, frankly, they may be exposing themselves or exposing others,” she says. “Hopefully, sooner than later you can either go to a pharmacy and get one or they could deliver one at home, something like that.”
Related: Actor Daniel Newman details horrific ER visit after checking in for suspected COVID-19
Cam
Countdown to the Trump trolls coming in here to attack Griffin. (Yawn)
Chrisk
Never understood their hatred for her. After her mocking of trump they just went on the attack. They seem to have a special hatred of women that speak out.
truthseeker
“Unbearable symptoms of coronavirus”
An abdominal infection, no fever, and clear lungs are not symptoms of coronavirus. Just like a bad back or blurry vision isn’t either.
She wasn’t given a coronavirus test because she didn’t exhibit any symptoms. She wasn’t tested for cancer or diabetes either because she has a stomach infection.
wancell
She did not have the symptoms of coronavirus. Sounds like they did everything correct.
People who NEED to be tested are being tested not those who WANT a test because they have a painful tummy ache.
Onecaddy13
I just cant with you anymore. If you’re really sick, I wish you a speedy recovery. But please do not use this opportunity as a publicity stunt because of your now failed career. It’s sad that you have to take a photo in your sickbed and still trash the President when people all over the world are in need of testing because they are truly sick and dying and not because they’re rich. You’re done!!
RyanMBecker
Serious question… I wonder if Anderson Cooper sent any well-wishes. Similarly, I wonder if Griffin sent flowers (or attended) Gloria Vanderbilt’s funeral. Or whether Anderson Cooper even called Griffin during his mother’s illness so that she can say goodbye. Vanderbilt and Griffin were apparently very close.
dhmonarch89
she did a video about what a wonderful woman Gloria was after her death…they kept in touch after Anderson stabbed her in the back.
o.codone
She’s an unbearably painful person with a dead career. Anderson was right to distance himself from her. She was bad for his image. She acts like an idiot all the time, she’s over-the-top controversial and her looks are very attention seeking (she looks foolish, like a clown, she cultivates that look-at-me, look-at-me appearance). She can dish it out but she can’t take it. She cries like a b itch when her karma boomerangs around to get her. Her career was deservedly over, let’s leave it that way. Let’s not revive Kathy Griffin. Let’s move on.
djmcgamester
I work in retail, the kind that’s considered essential. I talk to lots of people – nurses, cops and military personnel. Nurses say not only do they not have what they need now but, and I quote, “that’s nothing new”. Just heard that today from a nurse. Corporate-run hospitals do what corporations do – cut personnel and accuse employees of taking home masks and gowns rather than accept that they’re the ones at fault. So, yeah, things suck. They have for a long time now.