Meghan McCain is detailing her “rough” battle with COVID-19.
The former co-host of The View, who is the daughter of the late Arizona senator John McCain, penned a column for The Daily Mail in which she shared that she and her husband, The Federalist publisher Ben Domenech, tested positive for COVID earlier this year.
Though McCain and Domenech are both fully vaccinated, she said that they got “very sick.” While Domenech waited outside for a PCR test, McCain was too unwell to make the trek, and confirmed her positive test result thanks to her sister-in-law dropping off a rapid test for her.
“I am still now, a few weeks out from testing positive, waking up feeling the aftereffects of a cold in my throat, getting fatigued easily, and unable to taste food or smell anything normally. I have been lighting candles all over the house waiting for this to change,” McCain wrote of her experience with the virus. “I do not want to sound like a baby, or ungrateful because I am well aware of how much worse things could have been, but COVID was much rougher than I anticipated given that we are fully-vaccinated. What I experienced wasn’t mild, it wasn’t easy, and I am still fearful of the unknown long-term side effects that I may experience.”
The Bad Republican author also slammed President Biden over the lack of easy access to rapid at-home testing, as well as readily available treatments.
It was just last month that McCain was questioning whether booster shots, mask mandates and vaccine mandates were necessary in another column for The Daily Mail.
“As of today, the Omicron variant is known to have killed one person globally, even though that number is tragically sure to rise. But for some college students in New York to go back to school they must receive the booster — something that was originally only recommended for the elderly and immunocompromised,” she wrote in an article published on Dec. 15, 2021. “So where exactly does this leave us? It appears there is a segment of the population that is entirely comfortable being masked forever, having our children as young as 2-years-old exist in a world where they are educated and socialized only if they have a mask on their face, and requiring that we get a booster shot — I can assume — every six months for the rest of our lives.”
It is unclear whether McCain and her husband received a third shot of the vaccine, which was recommended as the Omicron variant has significantly impacted the effectiveness of the current vaccines, particularly when it comes to preventing infection. The CDC defines “fully vaccinated” as either having received two-doses of the MRNA vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
While McCain has been outspoken about mandates, she enthusiastically received her initial series of the vaccines in 2021. In March of 2021, she said on The View, “I’m happy to get a vaccine live on the show. I do trust science. I trust doctors, and quite frankly I would let them put an iPod nano between my shoulder blades if it means I can get drunk at Caesar’s Palace again.”
