Alyssa Milano Gives Update on Her COVID ‘Long-Hauler’ Symptoms and Talks New Vaccine PSA

Alyssa Milano has become the face of COVID-19 long-haulers, those who have recovered from the virus but keep experiencing symptoms in the months that follow their initial infection.

Milano has documented her experience on social media, including sharing an image of clumps of her hair falling out, and is now making it her mission to get more people vaccinated.

“Extra’s” INSTA MD Dr. Armand Dorian caught up with Alyssa to get a health update, and learn more about her new PSA.

Alyssa, who got sick in April 2020, said she still has symptoms, explaining, “I still have ringing in my ears, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath sometimes. But otherwise, I'm feeling much better. Believe it or not, that's me feeling better.”

Milano teamed up with the Creative Coalition on a vaccination PSA, and shared, “I'm just trying to really encourage everyone to get vaccinated, and just hope that they trust from my own experience,” she said, adding, “I am so happy to share with everyone that this illness is unlike anything that I've ever felt before in my life. It literally feels like every single part of your body and being is forever altered and you change your mental state.”

Dr. Dorian told her, “One thing I know personally when I… talk about certain topics including vaccination, there's a lot of passionate people on both sides of the fence and sometimes I get a lot of hate mail, death threats. I can just imagine the types of communications you've gotten.”

Milano replied, “That's been a consistent theme in my in my career… you know, because I am vocal, but especially something as important as getting people vaccinated. I will not be quiet.”  She went on, “If we don't get a certain amount of people vaccinated, not just in the rich nations… like, in the developing nations, in the underserved nations… There are going to be more variants, and it is going to come roaring back.”

Dr. Dorian pointed out, “I work in a hospital where, at one point, 85% of everybody in the hospital had COVID… And now we only have one positive patient in the hospital.

Alyssa interjected, “I just got goosebumps.”

Dr. Dorian went on, “The only difference is we are fortunate enough to have the vaccine. Without the vaccine, we'd be in the same situation, nothing else changed… and when we look across to the other countries as our world is small and we saw how the virus can travel so quickly to us, they don’t have the fortune of having the vaccine.”

Alyssa put it this way, “Nowhere is safe until everywhere is safe.”

Alyssa talks about COVID-19 and other tough topics on her podcast “Sorry Not Sorry.” She described it as “a bunch of unapologetic conversations where we learned from our guests. We take critical information and try to pass it on to our listeners.”

Dorian thanked her, saying, “What you're doing right now is probably helping and saving more lives than a lot of physicians out there, because of your reach, because of the way you're able to connect, and the way you're actually able to kind of pare it down. Even with the title, ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ — I mean, I love it… By showing your vulnerability, people will buy in and understand it and I thank you for everything that you do.”

Alyssa thanked him, too, “I appreciate that so much, and the work that you and everyone on the front lines has been doing… It's been a long time and I have a lot of friends that are… doctors that are all really, really spent, and really tired and feel the weight of this. And so, that doesn't go unnoticed or underappreciated by me, so thank you so much for all that you do… Please keep fighting the good fight!”