CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Wednesday described the punishing night he endured hours after being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, warning of the disease’s symptoms in sobering terms.
“This virus came at me — I’ve never seen anything like it, OK?” Cuomo, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, told viewers during his broadcast.
The host said he experienced intense rigors and was “shivering so much” that he chipped a tooth and registered a fever of “102, 103, 103-plus” degrees. “It was like somebody was beating me like a piñata,” he said.
Cuomo also said he had a series of hallucinations, including a vision of his late father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who died in 2015.
“I was up all night. I’m telling you, I was hallucinating,” he said. “My dad was talking to me. I was seeing people from college. People I haven’t seen in forever. It was freaky, what I lived through last night.”
Despite his condition, Cuomo has continued hosting his hourlong weeknight news show on CNN, “Cuomo Prime Time,” from his basement, offering a rare window into the effects of the illness rampaging across the country.
More than 216,000 Americans have become contracted Covid-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — as of Thursday morning, and at least 5,137 have died as a result of the disease. Because of limited testing capacity, experts agree the actual number of positive cases is much greater.
But apart from written accounts produced by patients or media outlets, the physical toll of the coronavirus has remained at least somewhat elusive to many Americans, as footage from overwhelmed hospitals is limited.
Cuomo’s brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is coordinating his state’s response as the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S. and has discussed his younger sibling’s condition during his daily news conferences.
“He is young, in good shape, strong — not as strong as he thinks, but he will be fine,” the governor said on Tuesday. “But there is a lesson in this. He is an essential worker, member of the press. He has been out there. If you go out there, the chance that you get infected is very high.”
On Wednesday night, Chris Cuomo appeared to receive a phone call from his brother in the middle of an interview with CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, but sent the governor to voicemail.
“Sorry, that’s Andrew,” he said, silencing his phone. “I’ll talk to him later. Pest.”
Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah), another high-profile Covid-19 patient, also recounted his battle with the disease on Thursday morning, telling NBC’s “Today” show that he was finally “virus-free” after being hospitalized.
“I found myself in the hospital for eight days and just had trouble breathing, couldn’t keep my oxygen levels up, and it hit me really, really hard. And so it’s good to be back on my feet right now,” he said.
McAdams, who became one of the first members of Congress to test positive two weeks ago, added that his sickness “was quite an ordeal” and said that while he is “probably not quite 100 percent” well, he’s “doing so much better right now.”
