“With the two doses of the vaccine I felt invulnerable. I was wrong.”

I can’t be sure, but if I look back over the last few weeks, it’s very clear that I caught the Delta variant of the coronavirus during the G7 (Group of Seven) nations summit in Cornwall, probably on Sunday, June 13. .

It was a very long day: I got up before 5:00, with all the inconvenience and stress of a broadcast from outside, with our guests refusing to move from their “steel ring”, and then with great transport difficulties to try and get back to London, which means I wasn’t home until after midnight.

Feeling gutted on Monday wasn’t a surprise, but I moved on with my life.

On Tuesday, I felt like I had caught a summer cold: sneezing, a sore throat, and a slight headache.

But in the middle of allergy season, I didn’t find it anything sinister.

He had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine long before. Not that I was being reckless, but I felt invulnerable in a way. I was wrong.

Seriously ill

The next day, Wednesday, I had two coronavirus tests.

Both were negative and I continued with my daily affairs: errands, shopping, delivery of paintings for my art exhibition in Bermondsey, southeast London …

I kept feeling like I had a bad cold.

Honestly, if I hadn’t been working at the BBC with younger colleagues who hadn’t been vaccinated, I could have gone ahead and tried hosting my next Sunday show.

Instead, I went for a PCR test in north central London.

At 08:00 in the morning of the day next i got a positive result and the health authorities told me that I should be confined for 10 days from the first symptoms, that is, in my case, until Friday, June 25.

I did it. Nick Robinson, bless him, took over at the last minute.

Two days after my first symptoms, I started to feel seriously sick.

He had a fever, muscle pain, tremors, a severe headache, and cold-like symptoms.

I couldn’t smell anything, not my aftershave, not coffee, nothing.

I’d start the books and put them down, and crawl back into bed to go back to sleep.

I wasn’t even very interested in the news.

One day I felt better and the next worse.

I started to worry about the long-lasting covid.

Anyway, for me, it all ended happily. I recovered pretty quickly and, apparently, completely.

When my quarantine ended, I was feeling fine.

Some reflections

But I have the following thoughts.

First of all, the early symptoms of this new strain, first identified in India, are very, very similar to those of a mild cold, and it is incredibly infectious, so be careful.

Second, if you have any doubts, get a PCR test.

Third, with a positive result, for God’s sake, put yourself in isolation.

You may think you have super powers because you have received both vaccines. And, yes, the vaccine seems to protect very well against admission to the hospital – at no point did I have any difficulty breathing.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get infected.

And it doesn’t mean that the disease behind those bland words, “mild and moderate symptoms,” isn’t unpleasant.

In short, be cautious, stay safe.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhrDWNcNQEM