A.D. Dolphin reveals the truth about COVID-19, how to prevent it, and his thoughts on Donald Trump’s “inconsistent” handling of it

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A.D. Dolphin is ready to share professional tips on how to stay as safe as possible during Coronavirus. The Los Angeles native is best known for his work on the “Steve Harvey” show, serving as the host’s health coach. He’s even been featured on “The Breakfast Club.”

Dolphin is also CEO and founder of his own company, Dherbs, which has been around for 15 years. While his original career goals of being a professional basketball player took him overseas years ago, it was when he began to train athletes that he realized his passion for helping them live their lives to the fullest potential. This meant educating others on the necessary supplements that they needed to optimize their bodies and their overall health.

REVOLT caught up with Dolphin to discuss his thoughts on COVID-19, how we can stay safe, and more. Read below.

Being a grandson to a musician, how did you fall into the health and wellness world?

Well, I’m an entrepreneur. My grandfather was an entrepreneur, he had many businesses. That spirit lives within me because I have several different companies. I have a real estate company. I own a restaurant. I’m pretty much into everything. But honestly, Dherbs is the one thing we did that transformed my life. As far as what I do, how I move, it helped the health not just within my community, but my family.

My entire family uses Dherbs and that’s one of the reasons why we’re not as worried during this time. I’ve owned the company for 15 years. I’ve been healthy for 15 years. My mother’s almost 70 years old,  she’s not on any medication whatsoever. She doesn’t have high blood pressure, doesn’t have diabetes, none of that. She has a great weight for her age and height, so we’re going to be okay. We’re more prepared than other people, I’d say.

What are your thoughts on what’s happening?

The craziness. I always tell people we have to look back in the past. Look towards the Spanish flu and what happened there in 1918. It went on for about a year, killed between 20 million to 50 million people. That was the last pandemic. How did they resolve the issue? By using some of the methods now. Cleaning hands, staying a certain amount of distance from people. They’re doing all the same techniques that were proven back then to be effective.

Can you compare it to the Coronavirus from years ago?

Well, that was the flu. Coronavirus is more SARS, so definitely a little bit different. But, they’re using the same techniques, as far as distance and it’s highly contagious. With Coronavirus, some of the main symptoms is, “Do you have a fever?” That’s the number one thing. “How do you feel?” After that, they want to know, “Is it hard for you to breath?” But to be honest, that’s some of the symptoms with the Spanish Flu, too.

Do you have any potential cures or vaccines for this?

Not me personally. The last line of defense for anyone is your immune system. Having that intact along with all the other external things you can do by staying away and washing your hands, it’s increasing upon your immune system.

How do you do that?

There’s certain herbs you can take that can help you with your immune system. We have great herbal products to help you. We have Immune formula, Antiviral, Vitamin C, things I’d recommend to people to eat on their own. Turmeric’s great for you. Ginger’s great for you. Anything citrus that’s high in vitamin C is great for you. Teas are great for you.

One thing they did with the flu is called hot fomentation, which is applying heat. Viruses have a difficult time existing in hot places. That’s why you hear [Donald Trump] talking about the summer. But, also putting a hot compress on your body is great for you. We’re always into natural remedies, things that you can do, things that you can eat along with taking herbal formulas.

What are your thoughts on how Trump is handling the spread?

Ah, he’s shown a lot of inconsistency so far, as far as his comments. I see his conversation changing, changing, changing. He didn’t take it as seriously as he should have. He probably didn’t know what he was up against or the effects of it. That’s surprising to everybody because we’re in such a different place now. Now, we’re in a similar place. We’re going to have to address this the same way they addressed it in the past. He did a poor job, but hopefully he steps it up.

What would you say this Coronavirus exactly is? 

It’s something that’s highly contagious. They’re saying around December, it may have been here longer than that. A lot of people think they’ve had it.

Do you think that’s true?

It’s possible. Unfortunately, they don’t tend to tell us things until it is a problem, as opposed to saying, “Hey, let’s do this now.” If Donald Trump would have reacted right in the beginning saying, “Hey let’s cut off, let’s isolate ourselves initially,” and been one of the few countries to do that in the forefront, we’d be in a better situation now. Being more precautious is what people should do first.

What would you say its long-term effects on society will be?

It’s going to be a learning curve on how to deal with certain things in the future. How to react sooner. That’s the key. Life is about learning. We’re all going to make mistakes. Donald Trump’s going to make mistakes. We have to learn from the predecessors. What did they do? What did they do wrong? When these things come into our existence now, how do we approach it? Okay, they did this wrong. Let’s not do that again. Let’s expose the public a lot sooner. Let’s make people aware of it. Let’s have commercials. Let’s put stuff on the internet. Let’s cut off the border sooner. It’s a learning experience. It’s hard to really prepare for this.

How serious do you think it is?

It’s highly contagious, which sucks. We’re realizing it’s not the fact [that] they’re worried so much about Corona[virus]. They’re more worried about the fact that if you have Corona[virus], 15% of the people need the ventilators. That’s the real issue — 15% of people have trouble breathing. I think it’s only a million ventilators within the United States. It’s only 100,000 within California. If everybody got sick at the same time, which is 330 million to 370 million people, how many ventilators will we have so people can exist?

In Italy, so many people were getting sick and they only had so many systems to help people breathe. They literally started picking people to live, which is crazy. But, that’s what they’re worried about. Is Corona[virus] going to kill you? The likely chance of it killing you is very, very low. But, it’s a higher chance of you having trouble breathing, and do you have the systems in place that can help you breathe? That’s the key. If we face something, are we going to have enough equipment to keep people alive?

I don’t want to make light of this, but Corona[virus] only has a mortality rate of 3%. It’s technically killing only 3% of the people. If 100 people had it, three would die. But, when you start getting into bigger and bigger numbers, it becomes something really terrible. I don’t want to downplay that at all, it’s still very serious. No one wants to lose their grandparents, but that’s really what’s going on. It’s not enough equipment to help the people who are ill. That’s the issue.

Who would you say are the most at risk?

The elderly, so the people 65 and older. Also the people who suffer from high blood pressure, who already have some kind of a lung issue because it attacks your respiratory system. Also diabetes, if you have any ailment already along with this, it makes it harder for you to deal with it. There’s one child who died so far out of everyone. That tells you it’s mostly elderly people being drastically affected, and the people who have diseases or disorders currently.

Being a health coach, how has your business been affected?

At Dherbs, we give people more information. We’re actually teaching people how to wash their hands. What’s the safe distance? We already know it’s between four to six feet. We’re telling people how you can actually contract it. People are contracting it through droplets, like if you sneeze, if you cough. Then, if you touch something and place it on your mouth, your nasal part or you rub your eyes, that’s how it’s getting into your system. Having clean hands and washing your hands, that’s what you really, really want to do to keep yourself in a safe place.

What are your thoughts on people wiping out cleaning supplies and toiletries in stores? 

We have to really think about our fellow man. If you have enough at home, why are you hoarding it now? People are becoming more and more selfish during this time when in actuality, they should become more and more kind. Being more and more helpful. We’re taking the wrong approach. We’re all in this. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, Spanish, Asian, we’re all being affected. Doesn’t matter if you’re from Russia, Germany, America, we’re all being affected. We’re all in this as a whole. So, therefore, this is a chance for us to work together. Learn to work together in the future, hold each other’s hand.