ESPN host Stephen A. Smith, after enduring hospitalization with COVID-19, said he “wouldn’t be here” if he was not vaccinated.
Smith returned to ESPN’s First Take on Monday, explaining he was hospitalized last month with COVID-19.
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“For me personally, it hit me differently,” Smith said. “[Doctors] told me, had I not been vaccinated, I wouldn’t be here. That’s how bad I was … I had pneumonia in both lungs. My liver was bad, and it ravaged me to the point where even now I have to monitor my volume, get to the gym every day … I’m still not 100% with my lungs, but I’m COVID negative … I’m on the road to recovery.”
Smith added he had a 103-degree fever and woke up in “pools of sweat” while infected.
“And it got to a point that right before New Year’s Eve, I was in the hospital into New Year’s Day,” he said. “That’s how I brought in the new year.”
Smith said he thanks the vaccine for saving his life.
“I wanted to take a moment to say to folks out there that … the vaccine, according to [doctors], saved me,” he said. “Now, everybody’s different because my sister smokes, and she had COVID, and she was fine in three days, three to four days. Me? I don’t smoke, and it almost took me out.”
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Smith also emphasized the importance of wearing masks to protect others.
“I think the one thing to emphasize the importance of, no matter how you feel about the vaccine, that mask is important,” he said. “Because you don’t know how the next person is affected. How I’m affected is different from how you were affected.”
