QUEEN guitarist Brian May has opened up about his battle with COVID-19, saying his experience was akin to going through "the worst flu you can imagine." One day after going public with the fact that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Brian shared a video message on his social media in which he spoke in detail about how he believes he contracted the disease and describing all the symptoms he went through at various stages in his recovery. Brian said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[My wife Anita and I] been incredibly careful and really not going anywhere. We've been very hermit-like in a way for the past — what is it? — 20 months or so. And then last Saturday, we decided we would go to a birthday lunch. And we thought, 'Ah, this is the last social function 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 kind of know you're taking a risk… It seemed like a safe situation. You have your negative tests and you're triple-jabbed. 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. Now, if it had been a board meeting where everybody's sitting [a few feet] apart, maybe that wouldn't have been the case, but the new strain, the new variant seems to be so incredibly transmissible, I'm not even sure that would be safe; this thing is spreading at such an alarming rate." He continued: "Saturday was when the party happened. Sunday, Anita felt a little bit of a cough. I felt kind of all right — maybe a little [sniffly]. Monday, we both started to have some kind of symptoms. And we thought maybe we got some flu or whatever. We were testing the whole time and we were testing negative. And Tuesday, I hear that I think eight people from the party had already tested positive and had the COVID in their systems. And I realized that they had been testing positive 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 night to Tuesday — for the test to show anything. But I would guess we were infective all along that time. So, unfortunately, the test doesn't give you immunity from spreading it. Luckily, we pretty much kept away from everybody 'cause we had a bit of a feeling. So hopefully we didn't infect anybody else, although I'm not sure. We're now quarantining." May went on to say that he "two horrendous days" after testing positive for COVID-19. "I have to say it's like the worst flu you can imagine, really," he said. "And I felt very despondent. But, yeah, we were both poorly. Me particularly, I was pathetic, I didn't wanna talk to anyone, didn't wanna see anyone, couldn't get out of bed. I was just filled with a mess in my head and all the flu symptoms, a terrible cough. Now, Saturday — this is day seven — and I feel pretty good. I felt pretty good the last couple of days. So this thing does go away." Brian also urged everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19, including getting a booster dose as soon as they are eligible. "There are so many people in hospitals right now who weren't jabbed who are right on the line between life and death," he said. "And I can't emphasize 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, '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. "I despair seeing these people protesting against the vaccine, protesting against their rights being violated 'cause they might have to wear a mask," he continued. "Jesus Christ, guys, our parents fought through wars and had their civil rights knocked away. "All anyone is 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." The risk of infection, grave illness and death remains significantly lower among the fully vaccinated, health experts have repeatedly said. In recent months, there has been an unprecedented number of hospitalizations all over the world, particularly among the unvaccinated, specifically because of COVID-19. Among these COVID-driven hospitalizations, many patients are being elevated to the intensive care unit, where they may require the support of a ventilator to assist with breathing difficulties. May, who lives in London, had in the past attacked U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, telling The Independent: "I think it would have been impossible for anyone to make worse decisions than Boris. At every point he did too little too late. Hundreds, if not thousands, of our relatives died because of bad advice and because of the bad decisions that Boris made with [former health secretary Matt] Hancock and those other people." He continued: "If [Johnson] had taken the precautions of shutting down the borders a year earlier, we wouldn't have been in the situation we were. And the fact that he's willing to trade lives quite openly for economic gain, I find horrific... completely unacceptable." May compared it to "Winston Churchill going out in his garden and seeing the plans overhead and the bodies and going 'the bombs are dropping! The bombs are dropping! Should we hide? No, actually let's think of the economic consequences of hiding...'" According to the BBC, the U.K.'s daily coronavirus cases record was broken for a third consecutive day on Friday, with another 93,000 reported. London mayor Sadiq Khan said Friday's 26,000 new cases were having an impact on staff absences in the city's emergency services.
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