Jeremy Clarkson: “I’m not going to lie – it was quite scary.”

Grand Tour and former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has confirmed he contracted Covid-19 just before Christmas.

“Four days before Christmas, I woke in the night to find my sheets were soggy. And that I had a constant dry cough,” he wrote in his newspaper column, adding: “The doctor was very clear – I’d feel under the weather for between five and 14 days and then I’d either get better or I’d have to go to hospital.”

Clarkson, who said his breathing became “laboured,” feared the worst. “Because I am 60 and fat, and because I’ve smoked half a million cigarettes and had double pneumonia, I’d probably die, on my own, in a lonely plastic tent,” he explained.

“I’m not going to lie – it was quite scary. With every illness I’ve had, there has always been a sense that medicine and time would eventually ride to the rescue. But with Covid-19 you have to lie there, on your own, knowing that medicine is not on its way and that time is your worst enemy.”

He reflected on how little we know about the disease. “We don’t know how long we are infectious for. We don’t know how to tackle it. We don’t know what it does to us,” he wrote. “We don’t know how long the antibodies last. We don’t know how easy it is to catch it twice. And we certainly don’t know if any of the vaccines will work long-term.

“I don’t even know if I’m better now.”

Source: Deadline