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Natalie

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Joy Curbean-Johnson has some COVID-19 vaccine advice for her fellow Johns Hopkins employees.

"Get the shot," she says. "This pandemic is real."

Curbean-Johnson, who works in human resources with the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, hesitated for months before getting vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a dangerous bout with the infection in January. On Aug. 6, she got her second dose of the Pfizer-manufactured vaccine.

"I was scared," she says when asked why she didn't get the shots sooner. After she had COVID-19, she explains, she mistakenly feared that the vaccine could trigger another infection. (Click here to learn more about COVID-19 myths and facts.)

"I just kept saying I wasn't ready to get it. It felt like it [was released] too soon," she says. "We have all these diseases that there's no vaccine for. Then COVID-19 showed up and a year later there was a vaccine for it? It seemed too fast.

"But I'm so glad I got vaccinated. It's what we all need."

Her ordeal with the disease illustrates why.

Early this year, before vaccinations were widely available, Curbean-Johnson and three family members contracted the virus that causes COVID-19. First, her adult daughter felt sluggish. Then, her husband, who lost his best friend to COVID-19 a month before, started feeling bad. Both tested positive and quarantined. Within a day or two, Curbean-Johnson tested positive too, as did her elderly mother, who lives with them. Curbean-Johnson's mother spent two weeks in the hospital and two more in rehabilitation.

"We had all those symptoms you hear about," says Curbean-Johnson. "Cough, fever, aches, chills, couldn't smell anything. We were so sick. And with this virus, when you think you should be getting better, you get worse. It's bad."

Gradually, Curbean-Johnson and her family recovered. Happy to have the COVID-19 episode behind her, Curbean-Johnson returned to work in mid-February, about a month after she tested positive for the virus. She was free of COVID-19 symptoms, but she developed a mysterious pain in her left foot.

"I didn't know why my foot was killing me," she says. "It didn't make sense."

She figured she must've injured herself while bowling. Curbean-Johnson and her husband are devoted bowlers and spent a few hours at the lanes the evening before her foot started hurting.

They were masked and kept distance from other bowlers, but neither had received the COVID-19 vaccine.

After a few days, the pain in three toes on her left foot became debilitating. On Valentine's Day, a Sunday, she went to a walk-in clinic near her home in hopes of getting some answers and relief.

"[Clinic staff] sent me to the hospital immediately," she says. "They told me I had 'COVID toes.' I said, 'What? I've never heard of that!'"

Her toes were purple.

"Like, literally, purple," she says. "Not cute."

When emergency physicians at the hospital told Curbean-Johnson that the pain in her foot was the result of the COVID-19 infection she had a month prior, she was skeptical. The miserable fever and aches were gone. She had her sense of smell back. Her cough had mostly vanished.

"I thought, 'Oh, here we go again. It's another excuse to call something COVID related. I'm so tired of hearing about COVID,'" she says.

Curbean-Johnson didn't realize that blood clots are among the many dangerous problems that COVID-19 can cause. Clots in the lungs, brain, heart or legs can result in a deadly heart attack or stroke. They also can cut off blood flow to limbs, which can lead to gangrene and amputation. A vascular surgeon told her she needed emergency surgery to restore blood flow or risk losing her toes.

"It was one of the scariest times in my life," Curbean-Johnson says. "And one of the loneliest." COVID-19 restrictions meant her family members and friends could not visit her.

In a haze from pain medication, she called her colleague, Zina Brown, late one night during her hospital stay.

"We prayed and prayed together," Curbean-Johnson says through tears. "I'm just so grateful for the people I work with."

By the summer months, as more Americans got vaccinated, Curbean-Johnson heard a news report that the vast majority of people who were hospitalized or dying of COVID-19 had not received the vaccine.

"That's what did it for me," she says. "That's when I decided to get vaccinated. I should have gotten it a long time ago. But I'm glad I have it now."

When Curbean-Johnson finally received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at the Walgreens pharmacy near her home, she says her mild side effects were nothing compared to the sickness and fear she experienced due to COVID-19.

Now, she and her husband are bowling again, and they even qualified for the finals of a summerlong tournament. The entire family is vaccinated.

Curbean-Johnson is grateful to her co-workers and managers, particularly Kris Lukish and Misty Turner, for helping her through the toughest days of her family's illness.

"The dinners they sent us, the prayers, everything they did while we were sick - they just helped us keep our momentum to get better," Curbean-Johnson says. "I call them my HR family. They're not blood, but they're still family."

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Surviving COVID-19 Inspires a Vaccine Doubter to 'Get the Shot'

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Joy Curbean-Johnson has some COVID-19 vaccine advice for her fellow Johns Hopkins employees. "Get the shot," she says. "This pandemic is real." Curbean-Johnson, who works in human resources with the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, hesitated for months before getting vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a dangerous bout with the infection in January.

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Ex nurse is interviewed and shares her point of view on how its like inside the hospital

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"Of course it's scary." - Candid Interview with COVID-19 ER Nurse and Epidemiologist

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He very old and somehow survived covid 19🥰😍😍

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He's 103. He got his COVID vaccine. And he wants you to get one, too.

That's the message that Aziz Abdul Alim, who is from the remote valley of Upper Chitral of northern Pakistan, wants to tell the world. He received the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine on April 24. And he's happy to report he's had no side effects so far.

"If a 100-above-year-old man like me can feel perfectly fine, everyone should have the courage to take it," he says. "There is no reason one should not take the vaccine."

About Goats and Soda

Alim's enthusiasm around the vaccine is a big deal, not just because of his age, but because vaccine hesitancy is a major issue in Pakistan. A recent survey of 1,000 people in the country found that nearly over 50% don't want to get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, citing potential side effects.

Alim is also a COVID survivor himself. Last July, he became one of the oldest survivors of coronavirus in the world. After he got sick, he was admitted to the Aga Khan Health Service COVID-19 Emergency Response Center, Booni, for two weeks - and was discharged after testing negative.

One of the doctors there, Dr. Zuhoor Shahmir, says Alim remained composed and unruffled by the disease - and was a paragon of strength and courage. "In his recovery and subsequent discharge from our isolation ward, he became a quintessential example for many of the anxious patients that we treated," says Shahmir.

The news of a potential COVID vaccine filled him with hope.

"When I heard about the vaccine, I was relieved. I wanted to benefit from it as soon as possible," says Alim. "I was tired of living life in isolation. I wanted to meet people, talk to them."

Like millions of people around the world, Alim has limited his interactions with other people in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But the restrictions, he says, left him feeling "claustrophobic" - even worse than getting COVID itself.

"I was not allowed to meet people. I had no other activities. I survived this deadly disease without much fear, but the time I spent in isolation was very difficult for me," he says. "The only activity for a man like me in these mountains is to socialize with family and neighbors."

Moreover, he was feeling stressed about his health, he says. "I kept getting negative thoughts: What if I contract the virus again?"

Alim says he was inspired to get the vaccine after he heard about it from his religious leader. "I am not very educated, so I do not understand much about it, but he told us that he had been vaccinated against COVID-19 and recommended everyone to do the same as soon as the vaccines are offered."

Now that Alim has been vaccinated, he hopes to fill up his social calendar.

"I feel I am unchained now. I feel alive again. My fear is gone. My whole family is vaccinated. I encourage everyone to take the vaccine," he says.

Alim is excited that he can now celebrate the Muslim religious festival of Eid ul-Fitr with his community next week.
Benazir Samad is a lead multimedia journalist at Voice of America's Pakistan desk in Washington, D.C. She tweets @benazirmirsamad.

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103-Year-Old COVID Survivor Has Advice For The Unvaccinated

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He's 103. He got his COVID vaccine. And he wants you to get one, too. That's the message that Aziz Abdul Alim, who is from the remote valley of Upper Chitral of northern Pakistan, wants to tell the world. He received the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine on April 24.

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https://www.acc.org/membership/sections-and-councils/fellows-in-training-section/section-updates/2020/04/13/12/42/from-caregiver-to-patient-my-first-hand-experience-surviving-covid-19
This talks about a man and his experience with covid.

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"Experience is the best teacher and the worst experiences teach the best lessons." - Author Unknown

As New York City's medical community was learning about the earliest local COVID-19 cases, the first week of March 2020 was filled with mixed feelings of fear, anxiety, skepticism and frustration.

Frustration especially for the small number of trainees and providers who saw what was coming to New York City, while most others at their own institutions were in disbelief.

The distinction between non-COVID-19 patients under investigation and COVID-19 patients in hospitals started fading away quickly, as more and more hospitalized patients tested positive.

This exponential growth of contagion changed the lives of doctors, nurses and all other health care workers both inside and outside of hospitals.

While treating COVID-19 patients, a series of rapidly changing policies from wearing N-95 masks for airborne precautions to wearing only surgical masks for droplet precautions to eventually donning a full range of personal protective equipment added to the uncertainties and worries of health care workers.

Currently, virtually all of our hospital's medical/surgical beds are occupied by patients unable to breathe or talk, desaturating with bilateral pneumonia, unstable vitals, clinically evident dehydration and persistent high-grade fever.

Surgical, medical, cardiac and cardio-thoracic ICUs have all become COVID-19 ICUs, and new dedicated COVID-19 ICU areas are being actively formed essentially out of thin air.

Prolonged need for ventilatory support once intubated and concomitant multiorgan failure including frequent need for continuous renal replacement therapy put an enormous strain on ICU bed availability. Protracted hospital courses in conjunction with the nonstop influx of new COVID-19 patients creates a vicious cycle of mismatch between care setting and patients' acuity level.

The crunch for ICU beds leaves many critically ill patients being managed on telemetry floors and unstable patients requiring telemetry monitoring on regular floors, putting extraordinary stress on the health care teams involved.

Hospitals across New York City have adopted strict no visitor policies, resulting in an unprecedented struggle for patients without their loved ones around them and for their providers trying to provide some emotional support while simultaneously keeping themselves safe.

Hypoxemic patients frequently require use of high-flow nasal canula, an aerosol-generating oxygen therapy posing a significant threat of cross-infection to health care workers. The frequent need to prone patients creates a logistical nightmare as we attempt to manage their needs with limited resources.

Multiple daily overhead announcements of "code 3" - Montefiore's code for cardiac arrest - and "anesthesia-respiratory stat" work against our fighting spirit. Intubation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation are aerosol-generating procedures with higher risk of disease transmission, which presents the unique existential anguish of trying to save patients while protecting the providers.

While fighting this battle against COVID-19, many of my colleagues and friends became sick and suffered the illness. Eventually, I too experienced the disease first-hand and faced the dreadful uncertainties it brings along with it.

I distinctly remember how it started: we came back from grocery shopping on a Friday and I was looking forward to a quiet weekend. While watching the evening news, I experienced a few bouts of dry cough and felt feverish. My first instinct at that moment was to isolate myself from my wife and two-year-old daughter.

My wife brushed away the idea, saying my response was exaggerated. When I checked my temperature, it recorded 100.8, and I went ahead with isolation right away. The next day, with a lingering low-grade fever, I went to ER and got tested for COVID-19.

While my wife was still in denial, my concern was how I would continue to effectively isolate myself in our small apartment with one bathroom. The thought of isolating myself for two weeks from my daughter, whom I hug and kiss countless times in a day, was unbearable.

Utterly confused and unsure of what was happening, she kept knocking on my door to play with me. It was heartbreaking to hear her cry and leave, while my words from inside could not console her.

Nights in particular were hard with a sense of extreme fatigue and temperature crossing 101 frequently. On day five, I noticed wheezing and difficulty talking, which progressed quickly over the next two days to shortness of breath and difficulty lying down.

As per my infectious disease specialist's recommendation, I started hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. After two days of taking them, my breathing continued to worsen and my oxygen saturation dropped to 92%.

I went to the ER again and an urgent CT chest showed significant changes that warranted admission to the Medical ICU for close observation. With a heavy heart, I conveyed the findings and the plan of care to my wife via text message as I could not talk at all.

With my infectious disease specialist's proactive approach, I was lucky to receive IV Tocilizumab on the day of my admission. Noticeably my fever was gone the next day, but I was still struggling to breathe and talk.

The following three days in the ICU were an unforgettable ordeal, as I was uncertain about the course this may take. Even worse, I could sense the despair and anxiety in my wife's eyes during our video calls as I still was not able to talk.

Fortunately, I was one of the lucky ones - with the prayers and good wishes from countless friends, well-wishers and loved ones, my breathing improved and I was discharged home with the recommendation of one week's isolation from my family.

The day I finally hugged my little daughter and wife, I felt like I got my life back.

I learned a lot from this ordeal; about the courage of frontline health care workers, the absolute importance of our loved ones and the crippling uncertainty of life - no one is guaranteed to still be here tomorrow.

In the midst of this pandemic, the most practical lesson is this: listening to your own body and recognizing even minor symptoms is critically important during this time, as this can help us initiate timely self-isolation that in turn can protect others.

Be vigilant, be proactive, and protect yourselves and your community before it hits close to home.

This article was authored by Jignesh A. Patel, MD, chief cardiology fellow at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. Follow Dr. Patel on Twitter: @jigneshpatelMD. Learn more about Patel's life and his approach on well-being with ACC's Heart of It campaign.

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From Caregiver to Patient: My First-Hand Experience Surviving COVID-19 - American College of Cardiology

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"Experience is the best teacher and the worst experiences teach the best lessons." - Author Unknown As New York City's medical community was learning about the earliest local COVID-19 cases, the first week of March 2020 was filled with mixed feelings of fear, anxiety, skepticism and frustration.

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Peoples POV about Covid-19- Kathy

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By Activist Jasmin O'Hara

People of The Pandemic is a global collective highlighting the humanity that exists behind the headlines of Covid-19. We use portraits and stories to amplify the voices of everyday heroes in our society, who we often take for granted: healthcare workers, supermarket workers, delivery drivers, cleaners, first responders... the people risking their own health to continue servicing our needs.

"I'm trying to explain to customers, you don't need 10, 15, or 20 of one thing. Leave a few on the shelf for another customer, for people who can't bulk buy, or who might not have the opportunity to get here at eight in the morning. They look you dead in the eye like it doesn't make a difference."

Jarvis' words got us thinking. How are people like him coping during this time? Those still having to turn up to work each morning, unsure of the consequences. Would these voices be included in this historic crisis? We returned the next day to take his portrait and listen to his story, along with other workers and customers from the supermarket.

After sharing his words online, we wanted to tell more stories, but new quarantine restrictions made it increasingly difficult to meet more people. So we put our heads together. Suddenly we noticed how many key workers were coming to our door. Our postman. The delivery drivers. The bin men. The heroes we never knew we needed. We captured their portraits with a rule in place to 'document at a distance.'

The first bridge we built internationally was to Los Angeles, where our photographer friend Al captured an incredible portrait of an ICU nurse named Brittni. Her story represented the people working on the frontline of the pandemic. The healthcare workers, experiencing this in full force. She said, "I didn't think it would really affect me emotionally but with my first Covid patient, when I left the room it was hard to hold back the tears. He was 50 years old and had no existing health conditions." It was harrowing to hear Brittni's story, but her words sparked inspiration.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic and it was important we reflected that in our work.

Through Instagram, we connected with photographers and creatives from lots of different countries, and soon enough, a global collective of photographers was forming and gaining momentum. Our WhatsApp group was buzzing with new portraits and stories from every continent, bringing new perspectives and introducing more people to participate in the movement. Our multinational team now has charters from Estonia to Taiwan, and Melbourne to Yangon.

But it doesn't stop there. Our ambitions for the future involve exhibitions and publishing a People of the Pandemic book, as well as telling the stories of people when the pandemic is over. Those who lost loved ones, those who lost their jobs, or the scientists who helped to find a cure.

How do we want people to feel when all this is over? That through an unprecedented, uncertain period of our lives, it was supporting one another that got us through.

People of the Pandemic exists to set the tone of a new chapter, a culture where everyday people become our new role models, because they're the ones who got us through this crisis.

You can follow photos from the People of the Pandemic initiative on Instagram @peopleofthepandemic or via www.peopleofthepandemic.uk

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The pandemic from the people's perspective

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By Activist Jasmin O'Hara People of The Pandemic is a global collective highlighting the humanity that exists behind the headlines of Covid-19. We use portraits and stories to amplify the voices of everyday heroes in our society, who we often take for granted: healthcare workers, supermarket workers, delivery drivers, cleaners, first responders...

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Xiao Yang is a doctor from China who helped patients during the start of the pandemic.👹 👨‍🦽

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The winter of 2019/2020 in Wuhan, China, will remain with Xiao Yang for the rest of his life. During 60 days working in a makeshift hospital as an emergency nurse, he saw life and death, happiness and sorrow, tears and laughter.

Mr Xiao volunteered to go to Wuhan from his home town, Beijing, to save lives. "Saving life is the responsibility of every medical worker," he said. This commitment is deeply rooted in his family-17 years ago, his father worked as a doctor on the frontline of the SARS epidemic.

Mr Xiao didn't tell his boyfriend he was going to Wuhan until the last minute. "He didn't want me to go, but he respected my decision," he said.

On the night of their arrival in Wuhan, the volunteers were divided into two groups-intensive care and mild cases.

Mr Xiao was assigned to intensive care. For his protection, he was required to wear five gloves and two masks. However, most of the gloves were too small for him-wearing them for more than 20 minutes hurt. He also found it difficult to breathe. "It felt like someone was covering my mouth all the time," he said.

Even worse for Mr Xiao is that he is asthmatic. If an asthma attack struck, he wouldn't have time to reach his medicine because of all the protective equipment he was wearing.

"All of us medical workers recorded final words for our families on our phones," he said.

His boyfriend, Lin Feng, is a policeman. He too has become a lot busier because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When COVID-19 first broke out in Beijing, he was on duty for long hours, inspecting the freeways, streets and residential areas.

When the couple were far apart, instant messaging was the only way to communicate. Covered in snow after finishing his night shift, he received a text message from Mr Xiao reminding him to put on thicker clothes. His reply: "You take care of your patients. I'll take care of you."

Six days after his arrival in Wuhan, Mr Xiao realized that death could be near.

As he made his way around the ward, he saw a patient suffering from a drastic drop of blood oxygen level and shortness of breath. He rushed to intubate him-the quickest and most effective way to keep him alive. But he acted too forcefully, his protective suit tearing at his back-a colleague taped up the hole so he could continue to work.

After the patient was stabilized, Mr Xiao could hardly breathe and he felt sharp pains in his hands, ears and face-he had worn masks, gloves and his protective suit for too long. When the pain subsided, fear came over him. That leak could easily have seen him become infected with the new coronavirus. The leak also reminded him of the risks he was facing every day. "I can only pray I will be fine," he said. "I was prepared for the worst when I decided to come here."

There are many people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, like Mr Xiao and Mr Lin, who worked hard to contain the virus and save lives during the pandemic. In the Wuhan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center, 26 volunteers worked around the clock to deliver medicine to people living with HIV. UNAIDS was proud to support their efforts by connecting the centre with local health authorities to facilitate the delivery of medicine, helping with the delivery of medicine for Chinese people living with HIV overseas and supporting the establishment of a hotline providing counselling services for people living with HIV. As a result, the centre was able to deliver medicine to more than 2600 people, and the hotline reached about 5500 people.

"It was planned that I would stay for one week, but then it was extended to three weeks and then longer," Mr Xiao said, choking back his tears.

He finally left in early April, when the COVID-19 pandemic subsided in the city. He said he will remember everything, but he doesn't want to relive it. Nobody should.

Now safely back with his boyfriend in Beijing, he remembered the captain's words on his flight to Wuhan, "The flight is from Beijing to Beijing, with a stopover in Wuhan. When you have won the battle, we will take you back home."

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"I've saved lives on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic in China"

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The winter of 2019/2020 in Wuhan, China, will remain with Xiao Yang for the rest of his life. During 60 days working in a makeshift hospital as an emergency nurse, he saw life and death, happiness and sorrow, tears and laughter.

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Stories from covid-19 survivors and their thoughts when they were sick.

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Stories of hope and resilience from COVID-19 survivors

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Close to 40% of U.S. Households Say They Face Financial Difficulties as Covid-19 Pandemic Continues

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People cited problems such as paying utility bills or credit-card debt, according to a recent poll. About one-fifth have depleted all of their savings.

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https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0121-novel-coronavirus-travel-case.html
CDC reveals the first travel-related Covid case.

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https://youtu.be/gUvnX1rVAGA
How nurses have dealt with COVID

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Nurses talk about their experiences on the frontlines of fighting COVID-19

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Tenn. Sen. Lundberg speaks out after contracting COVID following vaccination: ‘Go get the shots, they’re available, there’s no cost’

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BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) – Tennessee State Senator Jon Lundberg contracted COVID-19 10 days after receiving his second Pfizer vaccine dose. When only mild symptoms followed, he told News Channel…

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Aleppo explains his experience with him and his wife having Covid and how hard it was to cope with the new lifestyle with his family. - Alexandra B.

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It was important to explain to our little Laura that there will be no more hugging or kissing. She cried at first and wondered whether that meant we had stopped loving her. But as we explained that it was something temporary, which we had to do because we loved her so much, she was okay.

Being quarantined at home for about 20 days affected our daily routine and forced us to find new ways of doing things. When I felt ready to work, I had to attend all my meetings remotely, via the internet or phone. It was difficult to explain to Laura that I was working and that being home did not mean I can spend all my time with her. For her, it felt like we were on a constant weekend but none of us could go out. I let her join during some of my video meetings to help her grasp the idea of working from home.

We learnt how to take advantage of our time in quarantine to strengthen the relationship among our small family, away from the internet and mobile phones. We came up with new games for Laura. Her favourite was dressing up as a doctor to treat us. She would even excitedly deliver awareness messages about COVID-19 and its preventive measures to us. A while after, we learned that she explains to her friends at the nursery what she had memorized about the pandemic, its prevention and our time in quarantine.

As a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) officer with UNICEF in Aleppo field office, I work on ensuring that people in need are provided with life-saving assistance as well as longer-term durable WASH support. The COVID-19 pandemic came posing a major risk to the health and hygiene of whole communities in such a short time. In Aleppo, since June last year, we had to focus on supporting the most vulnerable people, especially those displaced in camps, by increasing the daily water delivery and thus enabling the promotion of handwashing and hygiene practices. In addition, UNICEF provided remote awareness sessions about the pandemic and its preventive measures, using speakerphones on mobile vehicles to avoid the crowding of people in the camps.

Also, preparing for the reopening of schools, last year, following a period of interruption caused by the first wave of COVID-19 spread and restrictions, was a real challenge. We needed to launch a huge campaign among WASH sector partners to rehabilitate water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools, ensuring the functionality of handwashing facilities. We also provided infection prevention control and sanitization supplies to students alongside a hygiene awareness campaign.
*Maher Ghafari is a water, sanitation and hygiene officer working with UNICEF in Aleppo, Syria.

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It was important to explain to our little Laura that there will be no more hugging or kissing. She cried at first and wondered whether that meant we had stopped loving her. But as we explained that it was something temporary, which we had to do because we loved her so much, she was okay.

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Hospitals are taking responses about how the Covid Vaccine has impacted them.

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Here are the stories of how hospitals and health systems are vaccinating a nation through creativity, collaboration and compassion.

Vaccine Stories:

This content was funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant number CK20-2003). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this resource do not necessarily represent the policy of CDC or HHS, and should not be considered an endorsement by the Federal Government.

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VacciNation: Inspiring Stories on the National COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout | AHA

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Here are the stories of how hospitals and health systems are vaccinating a nation through creativity, collaboration and compassion. This content was funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant number CK20-2003). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nVAzHuUJik this is about a man telling people about his almost death experience

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Coronavirus survivor shares how coronavirus affected him, gives advice based on his experience

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Scientist are working on a covid-19 vaccine for children- Maria. A

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RALEIGH, N.C. -- Here's the latest news and information on COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines.
Q&A: How to safely go to big events like the NC State Fair

6:20 a.m.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising states to order Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine doses for children ages 5 to 11 ahead of a vote on its authorization.

An independent Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is scheduled to discuss the vaccine on Oct. 26, and a vote is expected soon after. In planning documents posted by the CDC, the agency is advising states to order their doses in advance of the meeting, with preorders starting Oct. 20.

This is meant to "ensure that vaccine can be placed in many locations nationwide, making it easier for children to get vaccinated" and "allow for a manageable and equitable launch," the CDC said.

A decision from the CDC on recommending the vaccine is not likely until early November; the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3.

FRIDAY MORNING HEADLINES
Yesterday, a CDC panel endorsed booster shots for the Moderna COVID-19. Today, the panel will look into booster shots for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

J&J is the one only one shot version of the vaccine currently authorized in the United States. The company suggests a second shot between two and six months after the initial shot.

The CDC panel will also hear arguments today from the National Institutes of Health on the effectiveness and safety of mixing and matching the different companies' vaccines.

In North Carolina, 70 percent of the adult population is at least partially vaccinated (65% is fully vaccinated). The COVID-19 metrics remain significant but continue to show improvements.

With the situation seeming to improve, things are getting back to normal--including one of the top religions in this area: college basketball.

NC State's Primetime with the Pack took place Thursday with fans packed inside Reynolds Coliseum. UNC and Duke will hold their season opening events Friday with fans inside the Dean E. Smith Center and Cameron Indoor for the first time in two years.

THURSDAY
4:15 p.m.
Despite an increase in the percentage of cases attributed to vaccinated North Carolinians, data shows the vaccines are still highly protective against hospitalization and death.

In the week ending October 2, 21% of COVID-19 cases were in people who had already been vaccinated. However, experts expect this number to increase as more people get vaccinated because the pool of unvaccinated people will be smaller. As of Thursday, 70% of North Carolina adults are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Overall, unvaccinated North Carolinians are more than four times more likely to get sick from COVID-19 than vaccinated North Carolinians and 19.86 times more likely to die from an infection, after adjusting for age.

Since January 1, 9% of COVID-19 cases and 6% of deaths have been in vaccinated individuals.

Just 1.5% of the more than 5 million vaccinated North Carolinians have gotten sick with COVID-19 since January 1. About 0.01%, or 1 in 10,000, vaccinated North Carolinians have died from COVID-19.

On average, just over 14% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were previously vaccinated. Less than 10% of post-vaccination hospitalizations end up in the ICU.

12:15 p.m.
COVID-19 metrics continue to trend in the right direction.

The daily percent positive rate Thursday dropped to 5.9%. That's the lowest since July 17.

However, the number of new positive cases remained mostly steady at 3,761.

Hospitalizations dropped to 2,208, and another 80 people died from the virus.

To look at the state's numbers yourself, click here.

6:45 a.m.
Haywood County is rewarding its teachers for sticking it out through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The district announced all school employees would receive up to $3,000 in bonuses.

The money is set to start arriving in paychecks in monthly installments starting in November.

The school district said the money for the bonuses came from federal COVID-19 funding. The money will hopefully help the school district retain the employees.

6:15 a.m.
What will Halloween look like this year?

The government's top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said families can feel safe trick-or-treating outdoors this year for Halloween as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. decline, especially for those who are vaccinated.

Last year, trick-or-treating was strongly discouraged. Durham went so far as to ask people not to do it at all.

We're expected to get an update from Durham Mayor Steve Schewel on Thursday morning. The mayor will release the city's guidance for how to safely celebrate Halloween this year.

That announcement is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Check back here for updates.

6 a.m.
COVID-19 was the leading of death among people ages 35 to 54 -- and the second-leading cause overall -- in September, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Peterson Center on Healthcare.

The research also estimates that since June more than 90,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 could have been prevented with vaccines, and more than half of those occurred last month.

In January, COVID-19 was the nation's No. 1 cause of death, the analysis found. In July, before the delta surge, COVID-19 briefly dropped to eighth.

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States should start preparing now to vaccinate young children, CDC advises

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RALEIGH, N.C. -- Here's the latest news and information on COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines. Q&A: How to safely go to big events like the NC State Fair 6:20 a.m. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising states to order Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine doses for children ages 5 to 11 ahead of a vote on its authorization.

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There are many people that experience covid 19 and many survived, here are the different experiences that people had and what they went through, and how hard it was to battle the virus.

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Everyone always asks me what it was like during that time. But my memory is pretty foggy. I told my nurse I was fine, only to walk out of the bathroom coughing and wheezing saying, "Please do not let me die" a day later. Every breath was pure agony, and I didn't know if I'd be able to draw another one. I remember hearing voices saying, "We need to put her on a ventilator" and thinking, Oh, good, I won't have to worry about breathing, before drifting off to sleep. When I woke up, the ventilator must have been put in, which was necessary but god-awful. I couldn't hear or speak, and felt like a turtle on its back in the hot sun. When I had enough strength at times to force my voice out, I sounded like a robot.

On April 9, the ICU ran out of space and I was sent to a nursing home. At Mount Sinai, every single doctor, nurse, nurse's aide and housekeeping staffer were the most wonderful creatures God ever created. I had the most fabulous care - I couldn't have been treated better if I were a precious jewel. I never felt like just another patient in bed number 17. One of the nurses would talk to me and tell me to remember a happier time, when I traveled, to take my mind off of things. But at the nursing home, it was weird. People would come to the door and I'd try to motion them in, since I couldn't speak due to the ventilator, and they would turn around and scurry away. Later that month, I developed kidney failure and was sent back to the hospital, where I then came down with sepsis. It was like the hits just kept coming, one after the other. When I got sent back to the ICU, I got a standing ovation from the entire staff.

Finally, after a shorter spell on a trach tube, I was able to breathe on my own. But I still had weeks of recovery in front of me. At one point, it took three people to move me to the edge of the bed and help me stand up and take two steps. I began to have three hours of physical and occupational therapy every day, because I couldn't even do simple everyday activities like climbing stairs or putting on socks. I slowly made progress, until I could finally walk about 200 feet unassisted.

When I left the hospital in a wheelchair on July 7, the entire hallway was lined with my team of therapists. Each one gave me a piece of paper with a different challenge I'd overcome - like sepsis - and I'd tear it up. At the end, they decorated my wheelchair with a balloon and sparkling garland. When I got home, I bawled like a baby.

Now I'm back home with my elderly cat. My brother flew in from St. Louis for a few days, and I have an aide who comes a couple times a week to check on me. I also will keep doing physical and occupational therapy at home. The only time I leave my apartment is to work with my physical therapist outdoors.

I see photos of people out at lakes, parties and bars, and I'm incredulous. This is not the flu. This is something that wants to kill you. It saps your strength and makes you feel like you prefer to die. This disease is such an unknown quantity. I cannot understand why anyone would refuse to wear a mask. It's a pandemic!

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First Person Accounts of Recovering From COVID-19

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Everyone always asks me what it was like during that time. But my memory is pretty foggy. I told my nurse I was fine, only to walk out of the bathroom coughing and wheezing saying, "Please do not let me die" a day later.

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Tom Hanks said on the "TODAY" show Tuesday that the acts people can take to prevent spreading the coronavirus are "simple."

"The idea of doing one's part should be so simple," Hanks said in his first television interview since he and his wife were diagnosed with COVID-19 in March.

"Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands," Hanks said. "That alone means you are contributing to the betterment of your house, your work, your town, society as a whole and it's such a small thing, and it's a mystery to me how somehow that has been wiped out of what should be ingrained in the behavior of us all - simple things do your part."

Hanks said he thinks "a huge majority of Americans get it," but he's confounded by people who aren't taking the effects of the pandemic seriously.

"Let's not confuse the fact - it's killing people," Hanks said of coronavirus. "You can argue what the numbers are. ... It's killing people."

Hanks, whose movie "Greyhound," adapted from the World War II novel "The Good Shepherd," premieres on Apple TV+ Friday, said the movie is "88 minutes of a thematic story that really does speak to what we're all going through right now."

"There was a sensibility (during that time) that permeated all of society, which was, Do your part, we're all in this together," Hanks said. "What that meant - doing your part - was there was a tiny bit of stuff that you could do in order to aid the ongoing status of an effort that had no sign of its conclusion."

Hanks, 63, posted on Instagram on March 11 that while in Australia, he and his wife, the actor and producer Rita Wilson, had come down with symptoms resembling a cold, as well as body aches and slight fevers.

"To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the coronavirus and were found to be positive," Hanks said in the post, before the U.S. began to see a staggering spike in cases.

Hanks said Tuesday he and his wife felt "rotten."

"I had body aches - crippling, crackling body aches," he said.

Hanks has Type 2 diabetes, and Wilson has survived breast cancer, and the couple was told that they could have additional complications from the virus.

Wilson and Hanks were in Australia while Hanks was working on an Elvis Presley biopic. Production of the film was postponed a few days later.

"We'll keep the world posted and updated," Hanks wrote in the post. And he did.

He twice thanked the health care workers and others taking care of him and Wilson while they were in isolation, and on March 16, the couple's son Chet said they had been released from the hospital and had moved to self-quarantine at their home in Australia. Two days later, Hanks said the two had "no fever but the blahs."

Hanks and Wilson returned to the U.S. at the end of March. And in mid-April, when "Saturday Night Live" returned for a "live from home" show, Hanks was the surprise host.

The actor called himself the "celebrity canary in the coal mine for coronavirus" and joked that he was thrown when medical workers in Australia took his temperature in Celsius.

"Turns out 36 is fine," Hanks said. "Thirty-eight is bad - how Hollywood treats female actors."

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Tom Hanks: Doing one's part to prevent coronavirus spread 'should be so simple'

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Tom Hanks said on the "TODAY" show Tuesday that the acts people can take to prevent spreading the coronavirus are "simple." "The idea of doing one's part should be so simple," Hanks said in his first television interview since he and his wife were diagnosed with COVID-19 in March.

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MD's Dr. Neal Carl, Dr. Mary Colfer, and Dr. John Woodward hosted a virtual webinar where they shared their experiences with the virus. Hear their first-hand accounts of contracting the virus and their unique physician perspectives of coping with COVID-19 in the video below.

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MD's Dr. Neal Carl, Dr. Mary Colfer, and Dr. John Woodward hosted a virtual webinar where they shared their experiences with the virus. Hear their first-hand accounts of contracting the virus and their unique physician perspectives of coping with COVID-19 in the video below.

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Jenay witt

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With more than 30 million COVID-19 cases reported in the U.S. since the pandemic began, it's likely that the virus has affected you or someone you know. After all, the virus hasn't spared any demographic group, not even healthcare workers. Three of our WellcomeMD physicians contracted COVID-19 and - thankfully - emerged healthy on the other side of the virus.

In March, WellcomeMD's Dr. Neal Carl, Dr. Mary Colfer, and Dr. John Woodward hosted a virtual webinar where they shared their experiences with the virus. Hear their first-hand accounts of contracting the virus and their unique physician perspectives of coping with COVID-19 in the video below.

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WellcomeMD Doctors Share First-Hand Accounts with COVID-19 - WellcomeMD - Concierge Medicine

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In March, WellcomeMD's Dr. Neal Carl, Dr. Mary Colfer, and Dr. John Woodward hosted a virtual webinar where they shared their experiences with the virus. Hear their first-hand accounts of contracting the virus and their unique physician perspectives of coping with COVID-19...

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Holocaust survivor - Lydia Tischler - prisoner of Auschwitz

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYJcUC44Tnk ellen a famous tv host talk to her audience about her covid-19 experience

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Ellen Talks About Her Coronavirus Experience

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Dwayne Johnson shares his Covid-19 experience, calls it 'most challenging thing'

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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - A local woman shares her battle with COVID-19 while she's pregnant.

Ashley McLemore is 8 months pregnant with her second child, a baby girl. On August 5, she said she started to feel sick.

"I had a lot of congestion. Being pregnant that's kind of been something that is common for me," McLemore said. "So I didn't think much of it. By Friday I started having this weird sensation of shortness of breath."

It was then she took herself to the doctor.

"I got tested because my best friend's wedding was that next day and I was positive," McLemore said.

McLemore said symptoms only got worse.

"I had fever, chills in the middle of the night waking up shivering cold. My cough got worse," she said

McLemore said she was in fear for unborn baby.

"My child is very active, she moves a lot. It got scary," McLemore said. "My child stopped moving."

She went to the ER where they found her oxygen levels were a bit low, but she and her baby are OK.

She battled COVID-19 for nearly nine days and said she still is experiencing symptoms.

"I still have a shortness of breath every now and then and it will just kind of happen," said McLemore.

Dr. Jennifer Thompson, who is an assistant professor of maternal-fetal medicine at Vanderbilt Medical University Center, said there is still a lot of unknowns about how COVID-19 impacts an unborn baby.

"As far as increased fetal complications at this point, we still don't have an answer for that," Thompson said.

McLemore said she hopes other expectant mothers don't have to go through what she did.

"Definitely take all the precautions you can because I could not imagine being in labor and having that the same time," McLemore said. "I don't know if I would have made it."

McLemore is not sure how she contracted COVID-19. She said both her husband and toddler son both tested negative.

WSMV.com is now with you on the go! Get the latest news updates and video, 4WARN weather forecast, weather radar, special investigative reports, sports headlines and much more from News4 Nashville.
>> Click/tap here to download our free mobile app. << Copyright 2020 WSMV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

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Woman shares experience battling COVID-19 while pregnant

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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - A local woman shares her battle with COVID-19 while she's pregnant. Ashley McLemore is 8 months pregnant with her second child, a baby girl. On August 5, she said she started to feel sick. "I had a lot of congestion.

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CNN anchors Chris Cuomo, Brooke Baldwin and Richard Quest shared their experiences with the virus on television and social media.

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CNN anchors Chris Cuomo, Brooke Baldwin and Richard Quest shared their experiences with the virus on television and social media.

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Jenay witt

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journalists are demystifying covid-19 by sharing first-hand accounts on what it's like to be sick - cnn

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Journalists are demystifying Covid-19 by sharing first-hand accounts on what it's like to be sick

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When New York was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States, CNN anchors Chris Cuomo, Brooke Baldwin and Richard Quest shared their experiences with the virus on television and social media.

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Coronavirus patients talk about their journey to recovery and how the virus affected them and their families.

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Jay-Z chronicles his experience with his family during the pandemic. -Rykin

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"It's easy for us, as human beings, to want our children to do certain things, but we have no idea. We're just guides," the multi-hyphenate, 51, told The Sunday Times

There's no doubt that JAY-Z and Beyoncé have bestowed quite the legacy onto their children.

But, if there's one thing JAY-Z wants for Blue Ivy, 9, and her twin siblings - Sir and Rumi, who turn 4 in June - it's for them to feel supported enough to embark on their own ventures.

"Feeling loved is the most important thing a child needs, you know?" the multi-hyphenate, 51, said during rare an interview with The Sunday Times, pegged to his upcoming Only See Great campaign with Puma.

"Not 'Here's this business that I'm going to hand over to you, that I'm creating for you.' What if my child doesn't want to be in music or sports?" he continued. "I have no idea, right? But as long as your child feels supported, and feels loved, I think anything is possible."

Especially over the past year, spending more time at home and surrounded by family during the COVID-19 pandemic, JAY-Z told the publications he's learned family "is your foundation."

He added that, for now, his priority is to "just make sure we provide a loving environment, be very attentive to who they want to be."

"It's easy for us, as human beings, to want our children to do certain things, but we have no idea," he said. "We're just guides."

"I'm not beyond ego, right? Hopefully they speak of me [with] the names of Bob Marley and all the greats. But that's not for me to say," he said, adding that he is "most proud of overcoming my circumstances and providing opportunity for people who look like me and who came from the same situation that I've come from."
RELATED VIDEO: JAY-Z Says He Wasn't Protesting When He & Beyoncé Remained Seated During National Anthem at Super Bowl
The mega mogul likened his career - and his hopes for the future careers of Blue, Sir, and Rumi - to blackjack.

"There are certain things you do in blackjack," he said. "[Whether you're] $1 down or $100 million down, you've still got to do what's right - you've still got to go for it. You can't base it on the money. You have to base it on the love or passion of what you're doing."
Want to get the biggest stories from PEOPLE every weekday? Subscribe to our new podcast, PEOPLE Every Day, to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.
"You're not gonna be right all the time, and you're gonna fail - and you're gonna fail big, you know? But you're also going to win big, and when you're right, you're gonna be really right."

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JAY-Z Talks Family Life During the COVID Pandemic and His Legacy in Rare Interview

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"It's easy for us, as human beings, to want our children to do certain things, but we have no idea. We're just guides," the multi-hyphenate, 51, told The Sunday Times There's no doubt that JAY-Z and Beyoncé have bestowed quite the legacy onto their children.

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Dr. Isaac George describes and talks about his covid experience and what symptoms he got from it. He also talks about how it affect him and his life.

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Columbia University Department of Surgery

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Dr. Isaac George Shares His Experience Recovering from COVID-19

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A therapist reveals the way you can talk to your children about the dangers and effects of Covid-19. -Rykin

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How to Talk to Kids About COVID-19: An Interview with Family Therapist Tonya Ramsburg

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Our KidsTown specialist sat down with family therapist Tonya Ramsburg to answer questions about how to talk to kids about COVID-19.

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Tom Hanks talks about his experience with Covid-19. - Alexandra B.

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elcome to the future, Hadley!" Tom Hanks says from my computer screen, as he makes a quick glance to the right of his own to check my name. "Can you remember the last time you felt comfortable running around with other people?" he asks.

I tell him it was probably the last time I saw him, which was when we were at the Academy Awards in February, where he had ratcheted up his sixth Oscar nomination, for his performance as beloved US children's TV host Fred Rogers, in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.

"Remember those carefree days of the Academy Awards? It was like, what's that place in Italy underneath the mountain that exploded?" Pompeii? "Here we are in Pompeii! Great day! Bit of smoke on the horizon but other than that ..." he says and finishes with a chuckle.

It is because of that modern-day Vesuvius - coronavirus - that Hanks and I are talking through screens, and he is promoting a film that will be streamed on Apple TV+ instead of released in cinemas. Greyhound tells the story of Capt Ernie Krause (Hanks, natch) on his first wartime mission in the Battle of the Atlantic. It is, I tell him, a classic Hanks role, by which I mean he plays a thoroughly good man in extraordinary circumstances. But Hanks takes my comment more literally.

"Look, I've played a lot of captains," he says. "Capt Jim Lovell [in Apollo 13]; Capt Richard Phillips [in Captain Phillips]; Capt Sully Sullenberger [in Sully]; Capt Miller in Saving Private Ryan. But I try to bring to any of these roles, and specifically to Ernie Krause, the question anyone could ask, including you, Hadley: 'What would I do if I was in his shoes?' Then it ends up being something more palpable than a museum piece of what it was like to be on this ship in the north Atlantic." He's right and it's hard to think of many - or even any - actors who are as good at establishing such instant empathy with the audience as Hanks. It's why so many of his films are so comforting to watch: Big, Sleepless in Seattle and A League of Their Own are among my most cherished comfort watches (although the movies for which he won Oscars, Forrest Gump and Philadelphia, are very much not, and would probably be cancelled if they were released today). It's also why he's often described as an everyman, because he makes his characters so relatable, not because he himself - a Hollywood megastar who collects typewriters - is relatable, although that distinction is often confused.

Hanks doesn't just star in Greyhound, he also produced it and wrote the screenplay, adapting it from C S Forester's novel The Good Shepherd. "My ego has run rampant, Hadley, and it's all over the picture!" he hoots. Hanks has written films before - the 1996 paean to 60s bands, That Thing You Do!, and 2011's Larry Crowne. But Greyhound has been an especial labour of love for him, one he sweated over for almost a decade, and it is one of those sweeping war movies that really should be seen on the big screen. So the change in plans has been, he says, "an absolute heartbreak". He dutifully lists some positives about the change - it's cheaper and it means everyone can watch it on the same day - but admits,"I don't mean to make angry my Apple overlords, but there is a difference in picture and sound quality that goes along with [switching from the cinema to TV]."

Apple TV+ is having a similarly negative impact on Hanks' appearance in this interview. Even though he is in his office, "the cruel whipmasters at Apple" decided the background needed to be a blank wall, presumably so nosy journalists like me wouldn't spend the whole encounter snooping at Hanks' bookcases. Against the eerily empty backdrop, he looks, Hanks rightly says, as if he's in "a witness protection programme. But here I am, bowing to the needs of Apple TV."

Hanks is used to bowing to the changed landscape. Back in March, while he was filming in Australia, he and his wife, Rita Wilson, became, he says, "the celebrity canaries in the coalmine of all things Covid-19". They were among the earliest and certainly most famous people in the west to be diagnosed with the virus on 10 March, and were hospitalised for three days. I ask if they have suffered any after effects of the illness.

"Oh no, we're fine. Our discomfort because of the virus was pretty much done in two weeks and we had very different reactions, and that was odd. My wife lost her sense of taste and smell, she had severe nausea, she had a much higher fever than I did. I just had crippling body aches, I was very fatigued all the time and I couldn't concentrate on anything for more than about 12 minutes. That last bit is kinda like my natural state anyway," he says, with another chuckle, as if he were my father telling me there are no more monsters under the bed.

I interviewed Wilson shortly after she and Hanks had returned to the US. She still sounded pretty shaken, and we discussed how she talked to their children about the illness (she and Hanks have two sons, Chet and Truman; Hanks also has two older children from a previous marriage, Colin and Elizabeth). Was Hanks scared? He makes a scoffing face before I've even finished the question.

"When we were in the hospital, I said: 'I'm 63, I have type 2 diabetes, I had a stent in my heart - am I a red flag case?' But as long as our temperatures did not spike, and our lungs did not fill up with something that looked like pneumonia, they were not worried. I'm not one who wakes up in the morning wondering if I'm going to see the end of the day or not. I'm pretty calm about that."

On the day Hanks and I speak, the infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci is warning that, unless current US outbreaks are contained, the rate of coronavirus infections could reach 100,000 a day. Hanks is regularly referred to as "America's Dad" and is so revered his face will probably be carved into Mount Rushmore, so I ask how he thinks his country has responded to the virus.

"Oh dear! I have nothing but question marks about the official position as well as the individual choice. There's really only three things everyone needs to do: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands. I know societally it's been politicised, but I don't get it, man. I don't understand how anyone can put their foot down and say: 'I don't have to do my part.'"

It doesn't help when the man in charge is sort of saying that, I suggest.

"Well, I must say, I grew up looking to our leaders for calm and informed guidance and I don't think we've got that," he says, eyebrows tuttingly raised.

I've interviewed Hanks a couple of times, and talking with him is always a charming experience. This won't come as a massive surprise to anyone, given his reputation for gosh darned niceness, although I've seen him be prickly and there are enough stories out there to suggest he is more human than his plaster-saint image gives away. "I am capable of salty language," he concedes. I ask if he can tell me one not nice thing he has done in the past year.

"Well, you know, um, you know ..." he says, apparently flummoxed. "I don't carry around a lot of anger. But rather than just being nice, I think I'm kind. Can we say that?"

It's true that, since I last interviewed him, his demeanour has shifted slightly from the nice Jimmy Stewart "aw shucks"-ness he had going on, to something more akin to the beatific kindness of Fred Rogers, "a part people like you would say I was born to play," he says. "For A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, I ended up reading a lot of [Rogers] and he put ideas into words for me. There's no reason not to greet the world with some kind of kindness."

If, at the end of the 80s, you were asked who THE big star of the 90s would be, your answer would likely have been Eddie Murphy or Tom Cruise - but it was Hanks. I often think of him as the acting world's REM: likable in the 80s, unexpectedly mega in the 90s. But unlike REM, he has only got better - and bigger - in the 21st century. I ask how he made that shift from being the go-to guy for chaotic comedy to a revered quasi-paternal figure.

"Don't ask me, it wasn't planned!" he says, and then goes on to describe how it was a little bit planned. "There was a moment, after A League of Their Own, when I just felt that I wasn't going to play a certain kind of young man any more. I was older and I'd experienced some degrees of bitter compromise in areas that are not public," he says, wagging a don't-even-ask finger at me. "So I started looking for stuff that was different. But I was surprised when I would get these offers. When I said to Ron Howard: 'Gee, I'd really like to make a movie about Apollo 13,' I thought he'd say: 'OK, but you gotta be one of the guys with the headset in the big room in Nasa. You don't have the moxie [to be the star].' But I have a job where I pretend to be other people, and it's worked 51% of the time."

At this year's Governors Ball - the Academy's Oscars afterparty - the proper A-listers were, as usual, hurriedly ushered into a special section behind a velvet rope, so they could relax unbothered by the peasants. But whereas Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and so on stayed in their VIP section, Hanks spent the whole evening - behind the rope, yes, - but standing against it, so journalists and members of the public could queue up to talk to him. Part of me saw this as another instance of Hanks' kindness, but a more cynical part of me wondered if he just needed some validation after not winning the Oscar for his portrayal of Rogers. Why didn't he spend the evening relaxing with his wife?

"Let me tell you, it's impossible to relax in a room that's filled with about 1,500 people. Look, an evening like that is to be survived and you seek out a way to entertain yourself. If I really wanted to relax and have a glass of champagne, I would have sat in my car behind the Kodak theatre," he says.

In an interview last year, Hanks said that he realised from an early age he could "seduce a room". Is what he did at the Governors Ball and all this niceness him doing just that?

"You know, I don't even think about it. It truly is a self-defence mechanism when I am uncomfortable or unsure of myself. Ever since I was a little kid, I've been aware [that I have an ability], in a way my brothers and sister did not have, to walk into a room and make everyone believe I was incredibly comfortable with being there. And that, along with attention deficit disorder, turned out to be the perfect combination for becoming an actor," he says.

Hanks was born in California. When he was four, his parents divorced. He and two of his siblings lived with their father, a cook, while the youngest brother lived with their mother. Hanks moved more than 10 times before he was 10, but drama classes at school provided some much-needed stability and by his early 20s he was acting in small films, before making his breakthrough with Splash in 1984.

It seems silly to claim that a man who has had six Oscar nominations and two wins is underrated, but it sometimes feels as if Hanks-the-persona overshadows Hanks-the-actor in the public's imagination. But really, Hanks is a character actor who cannily turned himself into a superstar. He pins every nuance, and unlike, say, Harrison Ford, you often forget you're watching someone whose face you've known for four decades and instead fully believe he is the character he is playing. Just think of him in that extraordinary last scene in Captain Phillips: it is hard to believe you are watching the same actor who bullies Meg Ryan into falling in love with him in You've Got Mail, or performs slapstick across a building site in The Money Pit. Hanks's much-vaunted niceness should be less of a factor to his appeal than what a stone-cold brilliant actor he is. But we live in a world where brand matters at least as much if not more than the actual product, and Hanks, that seducer of rooms, probably understood that earlier than most.

I ask how lockdown has been for him and he switches back to reassuring dad mode. "I have all the benefits of my station, I'm able to see the kids and a few friends. I'm not experiencing anything but the great question of, what's going to happen? You're a member of the fourth estate - what's the future for our industry?" he asks.

I tell him I stopped making predictions after Hillary Clinton lost. Suddenly Hanks looks deflated. "Yeah, remember those carefree days?" he says, but his heart's not in the joke any more.

To cheer him up, I ask if he has any words of wisdom for other people out there struggling right now. "Wisdom from a guy like me? I wouldn't give that on a bet. Because I'm the answer on Jeopardy I have some wisdom somewhere?" he asks.

Come on, Tom, I say, I know you can do it.

He shifts a tiny amount in his seat and - I swear to God - I see him switch it on. "It's funny how this stuff blends into the art you hope to create. When we put together Castaway, we knew there was a card missing from that deck of 52, and the consternation over what was missing from that movie drove us insane. It was that elusive kind of beat, and it was what we're talking about right now: how do you go on? In Greyhound, Krause has a little card that says: 'Yesterday, today and forever.' That's all we have as human beings and that's all we have in the midst of the 19 different crises that we're facing right now, between Covid-19, worldwide economic disaster, what happened to George Floyd - the great reckoning that we're all going through. What do we have that we can have faith in? Well, we can have an understanding of yesterday, we can have a plan for today and we can have hope for forever, and that's it. That's my wisdom. It ain't much, Hadley, but is there anything else?"

We're both quiet for a beat.

Damn, Tom, I say, and he laughs.

Is he for real? Does it matter? Someone give this man his third Oscar.
Greyhound is on Apple TV+ from 10 July.

This article was amended on 8 &9 July 2020: to add context to some quotes and to note that Hanks has had 6 Oscar nominations.

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Tom Hanks on surviving coronavirus: 'I had crippling body aches, fatigue and couldn't concentrate'

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elcome to the future, Hadley!" Tom Hanks says from my computer screen, as he makes a quick glance to the right of his own to check my name. "Can you remember the last time you felt comfortable running around with other people?" he asks.