Actor Ice-T used his “no masker” father-in-law on Sunday as a cautionary tale while the coronavirus pandemic surges unchecked into the holiday season.
The “Law & Order: SVU” star tweeted the ordeal of Steve Austin ― the father of his wife, Coco Austin ― who contracted COVID-19, spent 40 days in the ICU and nearly died.
In an undated photo he shared of Austin appearing to take oxygen, Ice-T wrote that his father-in-law “was a serious ‘No Masker’” until “COVID hit him.”
“Pneumonia in both lungs.. 40 days in ICU close to death.. Now he’s on Oxygen indefinitely,” the actor tweeted. “Ohhh he’s a Believer now.”
Austin came down with coronavirus symptoms on Father’s Day, and the disease quickly progressed. In July, Ice-T provided an update of his father-in-law’s condition on “The Tonight Show” and tweeted that Austin was finally able to go home from the hospital but was “on Oxygen indefinitely” because of lung damage.
Ice-T said then that he was publicizing Austin’s ordeal on social media because there were still people who thought the pandemic was a hoax (as did Austin, according to his daughter). The actor said he knew eight people who had died from COVID-19.
“I don’t need more proof than that to know I don’t want to play with it,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Grammy-winning rapper had previously commented he’d “probably rock a mask and keep my distance for the rest of my life.”
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