Tiffany Haddish Discusses Her Positive Coronavirus Test With Dr. Anthony Fauci

In a recent YouTube video, Tiffany Haddish interviewed National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease head Dr. Anthony Fauci and discussed her concerns about COVID-19, the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on the Black community, and the promise of an upcoming vaccine. At the the top of her list of concerns, however, was Haddish’s own positive COVID-19 test several months ago, which came after a film production she was working on got shut down due to someone on the cast or crew testing positive.

“I was working on a movie, and someone in the movie contracted coronavirus, right?,” says Haddish. “I wasn’t in direct contact with them, but they sent all of us home. We stopped the movie. Then they suggested that I go get tested. I went and got tested, got the results like two days later. They said I didn’t have the coronavirus. Then someone else I know, who was around like a week before, they contracted the coronavirus. So I went and got tested again.”

Explains the actress, “Anyways, I pay for the test, I get the test a second time. I’m not feeling any symptoms or anything; it comes back two days later and they say I did have the coronavirus.” Haddish, who says she has been tested 12 times due to her involvement in various productions, reports that she was asymptomatic while quarantining at home, hanging out with her dogs and teaching herself to do the splits. Later, the comedian had a positive antibody test, then a subsequent negative one. 

The pair also discuss common misconceptions about the coronavirus (for example, all signs point to it emerging from human-animal contact, not a lab), whether herbal supplements can help boost your immune system, and concerns in the Black community about historical racism in the medical field. “I think particularly the African-American community, which over decades, historically, have suffered from being taken advantage of by medical community testing,” Fauci says. “We need to engage the community, to be very transparent, and tell them everything they want to know: exactly what’s in the vaccine, what the risks are, etc.”