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The Walking Dead Star Opens Up On His Battle With COVID-19

The Walking Dead star Michael Rooker reveals his unconventional throwdown battle with COVID-19 earlier this year.

Merle Walking Dead

Michael Rooker is a bona fide cinematic legend. The gravelly-voiced actor became an instant cult star with his debut role in 1986’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and has gone on to play vaguely sinister tough guys in many, many movies across his career. Contemporary audiences know him best as Yondu in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and as the deeply unpleasant Merle Dixon in The Walking Dead, while he’ll also feature in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, in which he plays Savant.

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Rooker lived up to his reputation as an on-screen hardass in recent social media posts where he detailed his battle with COVID-19. After he received a positive diagnosis, he quarantined himself inside an Airstream trailer and toughed it out without medicine, vitamins or supplements.

“I’ve been fighting off COVID-19. and I have to let y’all know it has been quite a battle. And as in any war, ALL is fair. And IN the middle of this epic battle I’ve come to the conclusion that there aint a whole heck of a lot one can do externally, to fight off COVID-19 once it has gotten into your body. This is my personal opinion, definitely not the conclusion of some scientific study. The real battle takes place internally, on a cellular level.”

He went on to explain that his immune system tackled the illness with a “one-two punch to the head, two body shots, and a left hook right uppercut combination.”

Merle Walking Dead

Rooker also clarified why he relied on his body alone to sort this out, saying:

“I felt that if my immune system was not already prepared for this battle loading up with all this extra stuff would only do me damage as kidneys and liver would have been gravely stressed.”

I don’t know if a medical doctor would have given this advice, but Rooker is a tough cookie and I guess he knows his body better than anyone. He’s now received a clean bill of health and has no traces of the virus in his system.

“In the process of fighting off COVID-19, I could feel and see the results of those daily battles, by how I felt and looked the next day. I was either feeling like crap, or pretty dang good, semi human in fact. So, just so y’all know the end result of all those daily battles has come to an end. My body has won the WAR!”

It should be remembered that willpower and physical strength isn’t a magic bullet in fighting off this virus and there are plenty of strong people who’ve succumbed to it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone follow Rooker’s personal treatment plan, but in his case, you can’t argue with the results.