Soon after revealing that he’d tested positive for COVID-19, Brian May detailed his battle with the illness — urging fans to take precaution as the Omicron variant continues to spread.
In an Instagram video, the Queen guitarist explained that he’s been “incredibly careful” throughout the pandemic, living a “very hermit-like life.” But he suspects he caught the virus during a rare outing, despite taking immense precautions. You can watch the clips below.
“Last Saturday, [my wife and I] decided we would go to a birthday lunch,” he says. “We thought, ‘Ah, this is the last social function that we will go to — not that we go to many anyway. We’ll chance it. Everybody’s triple-jabbed. Everybody’s gonna be with one of these things which says you’re negative on the morning — a lateral flow test. So it seemed to be set up very safely, but of course you kinda know you’re taking a risk.”
One day after the party, May says he felt “maybe a little snuffly” and his wife had “a little bit of a cough.” But on that Monday, they both starting developing “some kind of symptoms.”
“We thought, ‘Oh, maybe we’ve got some flu or whatever.’ We’re testing the whole time, and we’re testing negative. And Tuesday, I hear that I think eight people from the party had already tested positive and had the COVID in their symptoms. And I realized that they had been testing negative up to this point as well. So Tuesday night, we tested ourselves once more, and we were both positive. So it took that long — Saturday to Tuesday — for a test to show anything.”
May added that it “seemed like a safe situation”: “You have your negative tests; you have your triple jab. So what could possibly go wrong? We thought we were in a kind of safe bubble, so we didn’t wear masks. Not so, so it’s worth knowing that.”
May, who is currently quarantining, says he experienced “two horrendous days” — likening his illness to “the worst flu you can imagine.” By day seven, he said he felt “pretty good.”
Noting how the new variant “seems to be so incredibly transmissible,” May ended his message by highlighting the power of vaccines and boosters in the fight against COVID-19.
“I can’t emphasize to you enough: This is not the response my body would have made on its own,” he said. “It’s making this response because I’ve had three Pfizer jabs. And I beg you and implore you to go get jabbed if you’re not already — ‘cause 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.
“And I despair seeing these people protesting against the vaccine, protesting against their rights being violated because they might have to wear a mask,” he continued. “Jesus Christ, guys. Our parents fought through wars and had their civil rights kind of knocked away. All anyone’s asking is for you to play your part to try and unite against this invader — and it’s a nasty thing, and it isn’t finished yet.”