RTE journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes has spoken about his fourth time getting Covid-19, with the infection this time round having the most impact on his health.
It comes as 12,508 new cases of the virus were reported in Ireland today.
Philip Boucher-Hayes has spoken about his experience with what he believes to be his fourth dose of Covid-19 and subsequently, the worst he’s had.
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He posted on Twitter on Tuesday: “I have now had Covid four times. In the interests of general public health I’m willing to be locked up until this is over.
“But FWIW, the last dose has flattened me. I was lucky to breeze through the first three with only loss of taste and smell.”
The journalist first contracted the virus in the early days of the outbreak here in Ireland.
“I got it very early on back in March/April 2020, when that dose that hit RTE took out a number of people,” he told the Irish Mirror.
“I had an entirely asymptomatic experience, though, except for I lost my taste and smell.”
Apart from this, he was “fresh as a daisy”.
Unfortunately, his wife, journalist Suzanne Campbell, also contracted the virus around this time and became very unwell with it. She had to be hospitalized as a result of her symptoms.
Philip's second dose wasn’t confirmed by a PCR test, but, “with the benefit of hindsight”, he recognized that it was Covid-19. He lost his sense of taste and smell once again in December 2020.
“It came that Christmas. You’ll remember we hadn’t been vaccinated yet. We had gotten through the first wave and we were all talking about having a significant Christmas and so on.
“I would have been out and about a little bit more than usual and, with the benefit of hindsight when I look back at January of that year, I lost my taste and smell for about six or seven days again.
“Not absolutely sure that I had it, but I’m pretty sure that I had it,” he said.
The third dose came just after Philip had attended COP26 in Glasgow last November, where visitors were required to take antigen tests every day. At this stage, he was due to get a booster vaccination as he completed the primary course six months earlier.
Having heard of so many others who attended the summit contracting the virus, Philip took a PCR as a precaution, even though he had negative antigen results throughout his time in Glasgow. He also wore a mask at all times there, except for when broadcasting.
“Much to my surprise, it was positive,” he said.
“I was completely asymptomatic. I didn’t even have a loss of taste or smell so I assume that this was Omicron that I got.
“I was absolutely hopping off the walls in the living room for ten days of isolation, staying well away from everyone else in the house. I was, again, fresh as a daisy, not a bother on me.”
If it wasn’t for the cautious decision to get a PCR test, Philip said he would have never even known he had contracted Covid a third time.
His most recent infection came about three weeks ago, when his daughter, whose class had a small number cases, came home with “a slightly tickly throat and a bit of a sniffle”.
Philip said: “If you have children, you will know automatically that means you will get it from them but you will get a more exaggerated version of it.
“I got a raging throat infection and a really bad head cold from her, but I assumed it was the flu because I had been asymptomatic every time previously.
“Again, to be safe - to be sure, to be sure - because my wife had such a horrible time back in 2020, I got a PCR test and I was positive again."
Though he never had his PCR samples examined, it would appear that he had the Alpha strain in the spring of 2020, Delta at Christmas 2020, Omicron in November 2021 and BA.2 in spring 2022.
“The BA.2 experience was completely different to all of the other occasions in which I had been symptomatic or just lost my taste and smell for a short while,” he said.
His symptoms this time lasted a week and included a temperature, delirium, aches and pains, a head cold and, throat infection. “That was it. I wasn’t hospitalized with a tube down my throat,” he said.
The other three infections did not leave any lasting impact on him, but the most recent has left him feeling worn out.
“Usually, I bounce back from these things very quickly, but on this occasion, I am dragging my carcass around the place like one of those zombie movies.
“I’m still really fatigued. I get up and will be fully functional and doing everything as normal and then I have a day when I just can’t get my head off the pillow,” he said.
This being said, Philip has noticed improvements over the three weeks since he’s been recovering from the virus, with it “moving in the right direction”.
Though he’s back presenting programmes and undertaking his reporting duties, Philip said he's “functioning” but “not working at optimum”.
Having experienced three mild or asymptomatic doses of Covid-19, Philip said: “When the history books on this thing are written, I would not be surprised if way more of us had it and just never knew.”
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