Meghan McCain Opens Up About Her Nightmare COVID-19 Experience

Meghan McCain hasn't been shy about sharing her controversial views on the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when she was a cohost on "The View." In 2021, she called for President Joe Biden to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, expressed her frustrations with having to still wear a mask even though she was fully vaccinated, and claimed that she had "a higher likelihood of getting shot leaving this building than I do of getting COVID" (per The Wrap).

And even as the Omicron variant sent COVID cases surging, McCain dismissed the seriousness of it and spoke out against vaccine and mask mandates being ordered throughout the country. "With each season comes a new variant and with each variant comes new calls for boosters and extensions of the mandates," she wrote in an opinion piece for the Daily Mail, adding that she would not be masking her two year-old daughter. "I have no idea how I could keep a mask on a child for an extended period of time," McCain wrote. "She can barely keep a headband on her head. I also don't want her to live in a world where she is required to do so despite overwhelming science and research that says she is at very little risk from COVID."

But McCain has revealed that she just experienced COVID first-hand, catching it from her husband, Ben. And it wasn't as easy to fight off as she anticipated.

Meghan McCain is sharing details about her battle with COVID-19. "My husband and I got very sick — more sick than the 'mild Omicron' headlines and Twitter streams suggested," she wrote in a January 2021 opinion piece for the Daily Mail. "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."

While she admits things could have been a lot worse — and luckily her young daughter did not test positive — McCain is surprised that she was so sick. "Covid was much rougher than I anticipated given that we are fully-vaccinated," she wrote. "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 experience also has made McCain doubt if the country is going to be able to recover from the pandemic. "I am a pretty optimistic person by nature and this has been hard for me to shake both physically and emotionally," she explained. "I can't fathom how people without support, resources and international columns to tell their story feel. No wonder there is a pandemic of depression, suicides and malaise. Everything keeps getting worse."