Queen guitarist Brian May has revealed he is recovering from COVID-19, using a message to fans to encourage people to be vaccinated.
Key points:
- May says he and wife Anita Dobson contracted COVID-19 at an event full of triple-jabbed people
- He says vaccination is the reason he is recovering well a week later
- The UK is experiencing a dramatic surge in cases of the Omicron variant, putting a strain on hospitals
The 74-year-old is one of hundreds of thousands of people in the UK to contract the virus in a matter of weeks, with daily infections surging to nearly 90,000 on Saturday.
May, who is also a qualified astrophysicist, said he and his wife, actress Anita Dobson, had been “incredibly careful” and were “being very hermit-like” since the pandemic struck, but took a risk on a birthday lunch last Saturday.
He said everyone in attendance had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and used rapid antigen tests, more commonly known as lateral flow tests in the UK, before arriving.
“And in retrospect, perhaps we made the wrong decision. We could have seen him another time. But that’s history now,” he said.
May and Dobson tested positive using the rapid antigen tests on Tuesday evening, after hearing about eight other party guests had also contracted the virus.
The tests are widely used at homes across the UK to screen for the virus and are free through the National Health Service, unlike in Australia where they cost $10 or more. They are less reliable than the “gold standard” PCR test, but can deliver a result in a matter of minutes.
May described “two horrendous days” following the “double red line” on the test which signified a positive.
“[It’s] like the worst flu you can imagine, really,” he said.
Speaking to his fans through a video posted to social media on Saturday (local time), May said he felt “pretty good” a week after his exposure.
“And I can’t emphasise to you enough: This is not the response that my body would have made on its own. It’s making this response because I’ve had three Pfizer jabs.
“And I beg you, and implore you, to go and get jabbed if you’re not already. Because you need the help.
“I lost one of my very best friends to COVID very early on. In six days it killed him. It could have done me, the last six days, but it didn’t because of the jabs.”
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The unprecedented surge in COVID-19 infections and a subsequent rise in hospitalisations in the country has prompted London to declare a “major incident”.
Other European countries have tightened restrictions, while the Netherlands has imposed a nationwide lockdown.
Europe’s fifth COVID-19 wave is being driven by the Omicron variant, which is fast surpassing the Delta strain as the dominant form of COVID-19 in many countries.
Early data shows breakthrough infections of the new strain are more likely if people have received two or fewer doses of a vaccine, a risk which reduces if people have had a third booster shot.
About 45 per cent of people aged 12 and over in the UK have now had a booster, government data shows.
It is not the first time May has used his platform to advocate for vaccination. In August, he criticised music legend Eric Clapton’s anti-vaccination rhetoric and called anti-vaxxers “fruitcakes”.
In nearly nine minutes of videos, May also played a riff on a guitar, revealed his “despair” at seeing people protest against vaccination and instead urged people instead to demonstrate against the UK government, who he accused of dishonesty and greenwashing.
May, who suffered a heart attack in 2020, said he wanted to describe the illness for “the few of you out there that haven’t had this now”.
“It’s not too scary. You can get it and if you’re jabbed, you can survive,” he said.
May said his family’s Christmas had been postponed due to the virus, but he was already able to exercise again and hoped he had come through the other side.
“Be brave, but be sensible, be careful, and let’s all pull together to try and beat this damn coronavirus,” he said.
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