ANCHORAGE, Alaska (NEXSTAR) — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she tested positive for COVID-19 and is urging people to take steps to guard against the coronavirus, such as wearing masks in public.
“Through it all, I view wearing that cumbersome mask indoors in a crowd as not only allowing the newfound luxury of being incognito, but trust it’s better than doing nothing to slow the spread,” Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, told People magazine.
“And history will show we Masked Singer visitors were masked before being masked was cool,” she said in her statement, referring to the TV show on which she once appeared.
It was not clear when Palin, 57, tested positive. She told the magazine that other members of her family tested positive as well, and that it started when woke up unable to taste or smell and tested positive for the virus.
Her son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome and is at increased risk from COVID, also tested positive. The former vice presidential candidate said she gave him prescribed azithromycin to help control his high fever and loaded his food up with vitamins.
Palin said she quarantined with Trig and continued to test negative until she started to experience the “bizarre” symptoms so many others have felt and ultimately tested positive. She said she experienced a fever, sore muscles and a loss of her senses of taste and smell, adding that COVID-19 can “really knock you down.”
She said her case shows “anyone can catch this.”
“I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there,” Palin said, in urging vigilance but not fear.
She said she also advised “reprioritizing some personal time and resources to ensure as healthy a lifestyle as you can create so when viruses do hit, you have at least some armor to fight it.”
According to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, there have been over 552,000 deaths resulting from more than 30,450,000 COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.