Piers Morgan Raises Eyebrows by Revealing COVID-19 Diagnosis, Support for Vaccination
Piers Morgan announced he contracted the coronavirus after attending the Euro 2020 final at [...]
Piers Morgan announced he contracted the coronavirus after attending the Euro 2020 final at Wembley Stadium in London on July 11. The former Good Morning Britain host noted he was vaccinated and credited it with saving his life. The timing for Morgan's disclosure this weekend raised the ire of some, particularly Loose Women co-host Denise Welch, who called out Morgan for keeping the diagnosis secret until now.
Morgan, 56, shared a photo of this weekend's The Mail on Sunday, featuring his disclosure as the main headline. "It's been a long two weeks... had quite a rough bout of covid but thankfully my vaccine (AstraZeneca) worked in preventing it from turning into serious illness or worse, so I'm still here to tell the tale," Morgan wrote in the caption. "You can read my diary about having the virus in today's Mail on Sunday. But my main message is this: GET JABBED - it may save your life! "
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The former America's Got Talent judge believes he contracted the Delta variant while attending England's loss to Italy during the Euro 2020 final. Although only vaccinated spectators and those who tested negative for the virus were officially allowed into the stadium, Morgan believes he got the virus because unvaccinated and untested fans gathered outside Wembley.
"My confidence that the event would be 'covid safe' had disintegrated," he wrote in The Daily Mail. "It was turning into an unregulated free-for-all." Two days after the match, he began feeling the symptoms of COVID-19 and he rested positive four days after the match. "As I'm sure everyone who gets it feels, it's a strange, disquieting moment to know I have this killer virus inside me," he wrote.
Morgan later checked in with a respiratory expert who explained that he could still contract the virus after getting vaccinated. No vaccine fully protects against infection and symptoms, but they are strongly effective against serious illness. Morgan said he had a fever, cold swear,s coughing, sneezing, "strange aches," and "alarming" chest pains. Two weeks after the Euro match, Morgan said his voice "now sounds like Barry White, though I couldn't feel less like a Walrus of Love."
Morgan said his experience now gives him greater confidence in the vaccines. "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," he wrote. "I'm still here – unlike so many millions around the world who've lost their lives to Covid in this pandemic. For that, I owe a heartfelt debt of thanks to the brilliant scientists up in Oxford who created the Astra-Zeneca vaccine with such astonishing speed."
Although Morgan voiced support for vaccines, some criticized the timing of his column on his coronavirus experience. Prior to its publication, Morgan shared no signs that he was ill and posted pictures showing he was staying at his parents' house. "Funny that he says he's been the most ill he's ever been in his life but has tweeted every day since Wembley and never mentioned it once," Welch wrote. "Just unlike Piers to remain quiet about something like that that's all."