In a plot twist we all saw coming, controversial British TV host Piers Morgan, who has criticized everyone from Meghan Markle to Naomi Osaka, has just revealed that he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Saturday, the polarizing broadcaster took to his column to explain his theory that he caught the COVID-19 delta variant at the 2020 Euros soccer finals at London’s Wembley Stadium earlier in July.
He began by telling an anecdote about what happened when his friend, comedian Jack Whitehall was asked by two female fans to take my photo with them.
“I couldn’t resist gleefully posing, without a mask on. I threw my COVID caution to the wind because I was more excited by knowing how mortifying Whitehall would find his new role as my unpaid paparazzi,” he wrote in Mail On Sunday newspaper.
“We’re all vaccinated or have tested negative,’ I kept telling myself. ‘It’s fine.’ But this was just the drink talking, given that thousands of people were now in the stadium without any tickets or COVID checks.”
“The atmosphere was incredible, the drama excruciating, the ending soul-crushing. But as we drove home after the penalty shoot-out, with our voices hoarse and our hearts battered, the boys and I all agreed on one thing: it had been one of the greatest experiences of our lives. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to have been the COVID super-spreader I fear it became.”
“I’m down at my Sussex village home and began feeling a bit rough during the afternoon. I put it down to the rancid hayfever I’ve endured since early May, which has rendered me a walking zombie for numerous days when the pollen count has been raging,” the 56-year-old recalled while detailing the moment he started to feel ill two days after attending the packed game.
Ultimately, his worst fears were confirmed when a PCR test came back positive.
“A few weeks ago, I thought it made total sense for fully vaccinated people to get back their freedom,” Morgan pointed out. “But then I realised – mainly because my sons of 27, 24 and 20 forcefully told me! – how unfair that would be on younger people who haven’t yet had the chance to be double-jabbed and would therefore not be able to enjoy the same freedoms.”
“This is definitely the roughest I’ve felt from any illness in my adult life, BUT, as I slowly come out the other side, coughing and spluttering, I’m still here — unlike so many millions around the world who’ve lost their lives to COVID in this pandemic,” he confessed, before acknowledging, “I owe a heartfelt debt of thanks to the brilliant scientists up in Oxford who created the Astra-Zeneca vaccine with such astonishing speed.”
“The bottom line is this: if the worst that most vaccinated people feel with COVID is how I’ve felt – and anecdotally that seems to be the case – then it’s time we learned to live with the virus,” he concluded. “Though we should tread carefully as we move. A lot more carefully than I did at Wembley.”
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