However, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that things escalated for Howie and his daughter Jackie, who also suffers from OCD and anxiety, but he was able to pull through knowing his family were healthy. He explained: "There isn't a waking moment of my life when 'we could die' doesn't come into my psyche. But the solace I would get would be the fact that everybody around me was okay. It's good to latch onto okay. But [during the pandemic] the whole world was not okay. And it was absolute hell." Now, the 'St. Elsewhere' star has discovered that comedy helps him to maintain his conditions.