O.J. Simpson on Tuesday criticized the federal government’s response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and said that he is “convinced” that he recently contracted COVID-19.
“It’s disconcerting to think that it took the stock market diving before Washington started doing what they should have done a month ago,” Simpson said in a video message.
Shared from his Twitter account, the 72-year-old former NFL football star and felon said in the video that he believes he was infected with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, weeks before it triggered a full-blown national health crisis.
“In January, I thought I had the flu. I had the dry cough, I had the headaches, the fever and I had trouble breathing. I was in bed for 2.5 days. I went to my doctor finally and she thought it was some form of flu. She gave me some steroidal medication. She gave me some antibiotics and an inhaler,” Simpson said.
“It’s funny how many other people told me they went through the same thing. We are convinced now it was corona,” he added.
Discovered in China in late December, COVID-19 subsequently made its way to the U.S. where the first domestic case was documented nearly a month later on Jan. 20. The number of domestic cases has swelled in the weeks since to 4,226 as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the stock market drastically slumping and rebounding all the while.
The World Health Organization has placed the total number of individuals to die after contracting COVID-19 at more than 6,000, with the CDC putting the domestic death toll so far at 75.
And while health experts have asked people to practice social distancing and avoid making physical contact with others, Simpson noted that President Trump has conducted himself differently.
“It is so confusing. They tell you not to shake hands — you see the president shaking hands on TV,” Simpson said. “I don’t know what to think or what to do.”
Simpson’s latest video message is the most recent in a series about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak he has shared recently through Twitter. In a clip uploaded last Wednesday, he was shown wearing a mask and gloves while using an aerosol disinfectant spray to sanitize stacks of money he said he won golfing; two days later, Simpson tweeted another video filmed while he was in grocery shopping in gloves.
Simpson served nine years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery prior to being released in October 2017. He has been active on Twitter since last June.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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