The 'Better Call Saul' actor said his son's college roommate was "really, really sick" before Odenkirk's son started feeling ill.
Bob Odenkirk detailed his son’s experience with COVID-19 when he chatted with Conan O’Brien on Monday’s episode of Conan.
The actor explained that his 21-year-old son, Nate, became sick while at school at DePaul University in Chicago. “His roommate was sick. Really, really sick,” Odenkirk said.
“My son had asthma for many years. Very bad. A lot of times that goes away around 18 or so, but … even at 20 … I think he still uses his inhaler sometimes,” he added.
“I met him at the airport, and I gave him a mask and he washed his hands with antibacterial soap and all that stuff," Odenkirk continued. "He woke up the next morning with a fever, and he said his throat hurt like it had cancer. He said it really hurt."
The Better Call Saul actor admitted that he didn't fully understand the severity of his son's symptoms. “We're just so used to the flu, and our brains just naturally go: ‘I’ve been through it. I get it. Three days. Two, three days that are hard, and then you get better,’ ” he said. “It's not that. It’s much worse.”’Nate was debilitated for nearly two weeks. “Two weeks in, I’m looking at him, I’m going, ‘You’re good now, right?’ ” he said. “And he's like, ‘No, no. I’m not good.’ ”
Odenkirk spoke about his son's experience with COVID-19 when he visited The Late Late Show on Thursday.
The actor told host James Corden that the symptoms were “worse than the flu.” He added, “The pain in his throat was the worst thing of all, but I think also the fatigue. And it lasted longer than the flu.”
“It got scarier the longer it went, and the further we got from it, I became aware that we got very lucky,” Odenkirk told the CBS host.
Watch Odenkirk’s full appearance on Conan below.
