Co-founder of the substance abuse recovery program “Teen Challenge,” 80-year-old pastor Don Wilkerson has recovered from COVID-19 thanks to hydroxychloroquine, he says, reporting improvement within a day.
Wilkerson thinks he picked up the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, during a visit to his Teen Challenge Brooklyn chapter in early March.
He soon began to feel sick and lost his sense of taste and smell. “I got pneumonia, I could hardly walk, or talk; she (his wife) couldn’t understand me very well,” Wilkerson told CBN News.
After testing positive, he was admitted to the hospital, but his situation worsened. “The nurse came in at one point, and she said, ‘The doctor wants to give you this experimental drug,’ and I said ‘yes,’ I okayed it and I took it,” Wilkerson told the outlet.
The nurse was referring to hydroxychloroquine. Wilkerson took the medicine, and by the next day, upon awakening, he felt much better, and more strikingly, he could taste, and smell again.
“I started to cry, and I called my wife Cynthia, and I said, ‘Honey I can taste, I can taste,’ three times I said ‘I can taste.’ I was like a little kid, and I knew at that point … that the medicine had worked on the virus,” Wilkerson said.
Earlier this month, Michigan state representative Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) also claimed success with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and thanked President Donald Trump for helping save her life as she battled COVID-19.
Whitsett said she tested positive for the virus on March 18 and began taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, which was prescribed by her doctor.
Whitsett told the Detroit Free Press on April 6 that it took “less than two hours” before she started to experience relief from COVID-19, adding that she previously experienced swollen lymph nodes, shortness of breath, and sinus problems.
“It has a lot to do with the president … bringing it up,” Whitsett told the paper about the hydroxychloroquine treatment regimen. “He is the only person who has the power to make it a priority.”
Congratulations to State Representative Karen Whitsett of Michigan. So glad you are getting better! https://t.co/v6z46rUDtg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2020
When a reporter from the Free Press asked her about whether she thinks Trump saved her life, she replied: “Yes, I do,” and “I do thank him for that.”
Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this report