Michael Yo Details His Harrowing Coronavirus Experience | Joe Rogan

Michael Yeo. Yes. Back from the brink. It's crazy. You are the first guy that I've, well, my friend Sturgill got it and I talked to him, but he didn't get it real bad. Like how bad is not real bad? He didn't get it bad. He was like a little fatigued. Yeah. Yeah. So tell, to give me the full rundown for people who don't know what we're talking about. You got coronavirus. You were one of the first to get it that I know. You got it right after you were on this podcast. You were on this podcast. You flew to New York. Did Gotham for four shows. Little rundown. Yeah, little rundown. As soon as I landed, I did Wendy Williams on Monday and then I flew back and went to Vegas for a day. As soon as I got back and then I had three auditions. So I was rundown and that weekend. Were you feeling sick already? No. Just tired. Just tired. Tired. But I mean, we're always tired. Right. The road. The road gets you. Yeah. And I was moving all the time and very stressful. You know, you're trying to perform. You're trying to learn lines for an audition. So I was very stressed out. I was traveling a lot. And that was like my third weekend in a row. So it was... You didn't sleep? Much sleep? Yeah, I get great sleep. But you know, with two kids, like they're both at the age where, you know, you have to have both eyes on them. Do you ever wear a sleep monitoring device or anything that... I have, but I... Like a whoop strap? No, I've never worn that. But I get eight to nine hours of sleep. Like I'm a great sleeper. Like I sleep through anything. So it wasn't a sleep day. I was just tired, overworked maybe. But that's Saturday. I didn't feel right. My temperature went up to like 101. This is... You flew to New York what day? It was... I performed... I was there Wednesday, which would have been, I'm guessing at dates, May 4th? I mean, yeah, March 4th. March 4th. I performed the sixth and seventh, stayed the eighth, did Wendy Williams on the ninth, flew back that Monday, went to Vegas Tuesday morning, came back that same day. What did you do in Vegas? Besides heroin. We were visiting her parents, my wife's parents, with the kids. So no party in. No party. It was drive in and drive out. But that's exhausting. That's ten hours on the road. And then dealing with two kids in a car. And then the three auditions. And then that Saturday, I didn't feel right. And this is... You got to remember, when I performed in New York, there was only 11 deaths. And it was like 3,000 cases. That's how much this thing has changed. But Saturday, I didn't feel right. 101, it went... I said, I should isolate myself. Because in New York, that's all you heard about. So I was like, let me just be safe and isolate myself. So let's break this down. So you leave Wednesday, you go to New York, you do a couple of different TV things. And then you do the weekend at Gotham. And then you fly home. And then you go to Vegas on Tuesday. And then you drive home on Wednesday. Drive back Tuesday night. Oh, Jesus. So in and out in one day. In and out in one day. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, audition. Then Saturday, I was like, okay. This is my rest day. And then I woke up and something just didn't feel right. So I was going, okay, it's probably the road. I'm stressed, road. So it's about during the day I hang out, I isolate myself, but I'm between 100 and 101. Second day, I'm like 101, 102. But I'm still like, look, I'm going to beat this thing. They say stay at home. Because at that time, they said if you have symptoms, stay at home because they're taking the more serious cases. So the Sunday, Sunday came around, I kind of went down a little. I was taking aspirin, a lot of aspirin, because one doctor at the time said take it every four hours. And I was also taking aspirin and something else to bring your temperature down. I forgot what it was. But oh, aspirin and. Well, you said when you started taking ibuprofen, that's when it fucked you up. That's when I felt it did. So Sunday, I started getting this massive headache. So that's when I really started popping the aspirin three every three hours. But aspirin or ibuprofen? It was ibuprofen. That's a big difference between aspirin and ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory. Okay. Well, okay. I was taking, I was taking Advil, whatever. Yes, that is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory. Okay. This is what I keep hearing. I don't know if this has been substantiated that you shouldn't take ibuprofen while you have this. Okay. Well. For whatever reason. I don't know what that is. I don't know if that's been discredited or is that real? I don't know either. So I was taking a lot of Advil. Okay. A lot of Advil and Tylenol to bring the fever down. So I got it down on Sunday, but then I had a massive headache. So then they said, well, your temperature is going down. This was our doctor friend. Your temperature is going down. Just hit the Advil. So I hit the Advil Monday at noon. I couldn't breathe. Like gasping for air. And my wife had to call 911 to the house to come get me. So I'm gasping for air. 911 shows up. They bring me outside. They throw me on this huge, this oxygen machine right away. What kind of an option? A ventilator? Not a ventilator. No, just a normal oxygen machine. But they say we got to get oxygen in you. Okay. And it's almost like a movie. The neighbors are all out. Ambulance is overlooking me. You know, the ambulance is there. All the neighbors are looking. I can't breathe. My son is in the window. This is the worst. My son is in the window. He doesn't know what's going on, but he knows it's not good. And he's only three and he's crying. And I'm watching him cry. And I can't do anything. I can't breathe. And literally when they picked me up to carry me to the ambulance, because they need to get me to the hospital right away, it was the whole window thing. He put his hand up. Oh, Jesus. It really hurt me really bad. So I get into the ambulance and they take me. As soon as I get to the hospital, the doctor goes, you got corona. So they take. But did they do a test? Or did you just know? Yes. The first thing they do is they do a chest x-ray and they go, you got double pneumonia and corona. What's double pneumonia? When it's on in both lungs. So double pneumonia and you have corona, we believe, but we got in tests. So they, you know, swab me and stuff, but they took all the precautions like I had corona. I was the first corona patient at this hospital. This is how early it was, you know, so they took me to ICU and the doctor came in and I go, hey, this is escalating real quick and I'm still can't breathe. I go, am I going to make it? And he goes, we'll know in two days. It's going to go really good or really bad. And we'll know in two days. And every nurse or doctor that came in when they can't tell you if you're going to make it or not, you know, they try to comfort you, but they can't really say you're going to make it. And it and I was in the worst pain I've ever felt in my life to where had I mean, just think about the worst migraine you've ever had times 100. My body was hot and cold. It would get so hot. My temperature got up to 103.8 and they had to bring it down and then it would go up to 103.8 again. I couldn't move. My body was aching. Literally the second night I was there and I know this is the wrong thing to think. But if they had a eject button on life, I may have hit it. I was in that much pain like that. I couldn't even think clearly. I can't put into words how bad it was for me. So your head, your body, everything, everything where you just want it to be over. It's either you're going to make it. You're like, and it was so bad where you want to think about your family. But I was in so much pain. You know, I thought about them, but it was I can't make it. This is this is the end. And I can't see my family because they already told me that no one can come into the hospital. And I'm texting my wife lying to her saying, hey, babe, I'm gonna make it through. I'm gonna make it through where I'm talking to my parents going, this may not go well. You know, and my parents, the first thing I texted my parents is I'm scared. I'm never texting them something like that. And they knew how serious it was. And I said, look, Claire is my wife. Claire is at home with the two kids. I can't let her worry about this. She was already stressed out enough. She saw enough, you know, so I'm in there and the doctor says that no one can come see you. So I'm going, if these are the last two days of my life, I'm going to die alone in this hospital. And it just broke me up so bad that, you know, I've taken care of myself. I've done everything I can, you know, to take care of myself. And why am I lying in this bed right now? And it was a thing where when I did think about my wife, it was I will never see my wife and two kids again. You know, that's all that went through my mind is like I did they put you on a ventilator? No, my doctor saved my life. My doctor said, if we put you on a ventilator, he said that he says, because a nurse brought her up, should we put him on a ventilator? And he goes, no way. If we put him on a ventilator, he's going to die because his body is going to say, OK, this machine is breathing for us. We don't need to work anymore. And your body shuts down. If you heard in New York, 80 percent of people put on ventilators die. And that's why you think I think that's why I survived. I've heard that. I've heard that being speculated by other doctors as well. And it's very controversial because so many doctors put people on ventilators. And the last thing they want to hear is another doctor saying you've put someone on a ventilator that will die. Well, my doctor said that straight up in the room in front of me to the nurses. Like if we put him on it, he's going to die because his thing was it just makes sense why he would because now this machine is going to breathe for him. So his body is not going to. It's like working out. You don't work out a muscle. It gets weak. Right. This machine is doing all your lifting. So why would we want to put him on that unless it's it's just we have to put him on it. You know, but you've heard doctors were putting on people so fast because their oxygen levels were so low. Right. They're like, this isn't this is not normal. So we need to do something to get their oxygen level up. I think doctors are like everything else. Right. There's really good ones. Then there's ones that aren't as good. No, it's true with everything else, with everything. Carpenters, plumbers, everything, everything. And it's really I look back. I'm still now become very close to him. And the dude saved my life because if I went on a ventilator, bro, I don't I may not be here because I'm still on a ventilator. They kind of knock you out. Yeah, you're unconscious. Literally, that machine is doing all your breathing. So what did they give you? What kind of medication did they give you while you were out? Well, I'm healthy. Don't drink. Don't do drugs. I was the perfect test subject. Maybe that's a problem. Your body's not used to fight my bullshit. You got a party all the time. You bought it. It's like, oh, we know how to recover. Right. This motherfucker went on a bender. Listen, it is. I gave it to my mom. Oh, okay. So she gets home. She didn't tell me while I was in the hospital. She beat it in one day and she talks shit to me now. Oh, see, I beat it in one day. I have one fever. You take eight days and I see you, you know, and then she tells me, let's cut you too healthy. You need carbs. You need carbs. That's hilarious. Now she's a doctor. Now she's a doctor. But I gave it to my mom. She beat it in one day. But well, she probably wasn't run down. No, dude. Run down is the thing, man. You know, look, I'm a guy. I take a lot of vitamins. I work out a lot. I get in the sauna every day, but I just flew back from Florida. I saw you to Florida and came back yesterday. I felt like dog shit and just from the flight, man, just from the end is one day. So I scheduled an IV vitamin drip. I had the vitamin drip people come to my house, hit me with glutathione, zinc, vitamin C, everything. And I felt better almost immediately. Yeah, you got to take care of yourself. But I've heard from so many after I went through this and big shout out to your fan base. Because they reached out to me and showed me so much love when I was in the hospital and I just got out. And that means so much to me when they reached out. And it was really all love. But so many doctors reached out to me too and said there's so much misinformation out there. And I texted you about one that people should know about when people get out of the hospital with corona. Like there's no magical time. They're saying 14 days. Literally, when I got out the hospital, I was in the hospital for eight days. The last three days, I didn't have a fever. So they let me go. They said seven days, six days after that, I would be fine. But another doctor told me, look, after you're cleared after 14 days, people still have corona. They're they're taking the chance that it's not contagious. And that's why hospitals don't test people. And he said that this is why hospitals don't test people before they let them go. It's because they know they still got corona, but hopefully it's not contagious. So that's why they never test because if they did, that means people got to stay there two to three weeks longer. And that's the real reason he says we would never. Can you imagine when New York was going through that like really bad? I mean, they're still going through it. But when it was at its peak, if they tested everybody that left, most of those people would still have corona. So that would back up the system even more. And then insurance has to pay for an extra three weeks. So I learned that. I learned that my other doctor said this whole pre-existing conditions is bullshit. He goes, you came in. He says this is how much bullshit it is. You came in. If I would have died in a hospital, they would have said my pre-existing condition was migraines. They would have gone down. He said they do. Right, but there are some pre-existing conditions that weaken your immune system like obesity, diabetes. There's a bunch of them that they're saying in New York are the primary factors of the people that wind up having a really hard time with this. Well, he's saying though, they're using that pre-existing conditions, and I say it in quotes, to let healthy or other people almost like, oh, well, if you don't have this pre-existing condition, you're going to be fine. But it's not true. He's like, they're using it to calm people down. He goes, it's not true at all. He says, I see people that are fine, just like you, Mike. I see people that do have pre-existing conditions. I see the whole gamut. It's not just people with pre-existing conditions, but they're finding those people and highlighting those. And he's even at, they're even adding deaths to that pre-existing conditions total because they need some. What do you mean deaths to the pre-existing conditions? For example, like mine. If my pre-existing condition, he said, if I were to die in that hospital, he says, oh, well, he had migraines in his past. So they would have put that down as a pre-existing condition. Well, how often do you get migraines? I mean, ever since I was a kid, but... Really? Well, I even got, I played college football for University of Arkansas. I got so many concussions, I couldn't play anymore. So, and this was before the whole concussion thing. So my mom made me quit. She was like, you're not playing anymore. So it was a thing where, but it wasn't a condition. I have one every five, six months, maybe. But he says, would you come in with, since I had migraines? And they didn't know my history of migraines. But he goes, we would have had to say that was a pre-existing condition. I haven't heard that pre-existing condition being migraines, but I have heard diabetes is a giant factor, obesity is a giant factor, emphysema, people who smoke cigarettes. But then there was an article recently, something I got super suspicious. And I didn't even read the articles. An article that said that nicotine may help people with coronavirus. And I was like, that's the fucking cigarette industry. Right?