Ted Nugent says he has COVID-19
Rock guitarist Ted Nugent, the Motor City Madman, said he has COVID-19.
Nugent, 72, announced Monday he was infected with the coronavirus in a video posted on his Facebook page.
“You probably can’t tell because of my positive spirit, my positive attitude plows right through all of the negative,” he said. “Everyone told me I shouldn’t announce this ... During cluster f— pandemic, Chinese virus attack ‘21, I was tested positive today. I got the Chinese s—!”
Nugent said he has had flu-like symptoms for the last 10 days and “I thought I was dying.” He said mostly the symptoms have been a congested head, but that he had to “literally” crawl out of bed recent mornings.
A Michigan native who now primarily lives in Texas, Nugent has been a vocal hunting rights activist and an outspoken supporter of Republican politicians.
In a Christmas Facebook message, the rocker downplayed the virus and criticized measures taken by state and federal governments, and those around the world, to slow its spread.
Nugent has in the past referred to the virus as a “leftist scam to destroy” President Donald Trump. “It’s not a real pandemic and that’s not a real vaccine, I’m sorry,” he falsely argued in another video posted on Christmas.
He continued to dig his feet in with false claims about the vaccine in Monday’s Facebook Live.
“Nobody knows what’s in it,” he argued. “If you can’t even honestly answer our questions of exactly what’s in it and why are you testing it on human beings and forcing it on people in such a short period of time?”
Nugent campaigned in Michigan last fall for Trump’s reelection, criticizing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the September appearance in Jackson County.
In another recent video on his Facebook page, Nugent asks: “Why weren’t we shut down for COVID one through 18?”
The coronavirus that has killed close to 560,000 people in the U.S. and more than 16,000 people in Michigan was named for the year in which the first infection was reported — 2019.