In a new interview with Gregg Stone of the 103.5 The Fox radio station, IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson discussed his recent battle with COVID-19.
“The delta variant is the dominant strain in America, and has been the dominant strain in the U.K. and Europe for a while now,” he said. “But people who have gotten vaccinated are just not dying from it — not really. Something like 98 percent of people in hospitals haven’t had a vaccine shot.
“I don’t believe that people should be forced to have vaccines. Maybe in hospitals and stuff like that — people who work there. But honestly, it’s a personal decision. But I just think people are nuts not to take protective action against something that really could kill them.
“It’s not a nice bug,” Bruce continued. “It’s not the flu — trust me. I’ve had it, and I had two vaccines, and I’m really glad I had the two vaccines. And I’m kind of glad I had [COVID-19] as well ’cause now I’ve got more antibodies and all the rest of it. But it is not a nice bug. And I know a lot of people who have had it and who’ve still got long COVID — like, 22, 23 [years old]. Fit people — none of this, ‘Oh, yeah, he died ’cause he was 85 and he was sick anyway.’ Well, yeah, there is that. But there’s a lot of people getting it. It’s not a nice bug. And it’s not the flu — it’s way more contagious than that.”
He said in a previous interview with SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation Virtual Invasion”: “I had my double shot of vaccine back in May, and everything [was] hunky-dory, and then I got what people are calling a breakthrough COVID infection, which was just like a… It’s a bit more than a flu. I would really caution against people who go, ‘Oh, it’s just a flu.’ No, it’s not. And I know a lot of people who were not vaccinated — not because they didn’t want to be, but they were too young to get it initially. You know, 22-, 23-, 24-year-old people who have not been able to get out of bed for six to eight weeks after it — they’ve been really sick, ongoing.
“They’re not in hospital, but their life is really screwed up,” he continued. “And there’s all kinds of… People are talking about long-term COVID causing diabetes, causing stuff with your brain, even — dare I say it — erectile dysfunction. There you go. They didn’t tell you about that when they said go and get vaccinated. There’s a really good reason to go [and get the vaccine] ’cause [COVID] makes your willy shrivel.
“Because the blood vessels with COVID can become really inflamed, so they get blocked up and your extremities don’t get enough blood, and, obviously, there’s one extremity which is dear to our heart as men, and if that doesn’t get enough blood, then, boy, you’re in for a world of pain — or not.
“So there’s a lot of reasons, for me, why [getting] the vaccine [is the right thing to do],” Bruce added. “Again, anecdotal. People say, ‘Oh, yeah, but you still got COVID.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m not in hospital.’ I got over it in 10 days. It took me about a week after that to get my smell back, to start feeling more normal — get energy and stuff. But this is not just an ordinary commoner garden flu.
“Honestly, it’s my personal opinion — I’m not forcing anybody to go and do stuff — but I would advise anybody to just go ahead and get the vaccine.”
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