Inside Ted Nugent's COVID-19 Diagnosis

Pandemic skeptic and right-wing musician Ted Nugent has tested positive for COVID-19, despite previously calling it a "scam" and spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. 

On April 19, he announced his diagnosis in a Facebook Live video, adding that "everybody told me that I should not announce this." Nugent went on to describe the symptoms of his illness and how he realized that he had caught COVID-19. "I have had flu symptoms for the last ten days. I thought I was dying. Just a clusterf**k," he told fans.

"So I was officially tested positive today for COVID-19," Nugent continued. "I got the Chinese s**t. I've got a stuffed-up head, body aches. My God, what a pain in the *ss. I literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days." The musician referred to his illness with a racially charged term, similar to how former president Donald Trump has spoken about the pandemic. Nugent has been one of the music world's loudest Trump supporters over the past few years, per The Independent.

In between coughs, the singer-songwriter claimed that doctors who tested him revealed that they'd do "nothing" different than if he tested negative. He also cast doubt on the contents of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ted Nugent has previously been criticized for spreading unproven conspiracy theories about COVID-19 death tolls, as NME reported.

"They claim five hundred thousand people have died from COVID-19," he declared in a different Facebook stream. "Bulls**t. I believe that medical examiners in all 50 states have gone, 'I put down on the death certificate that he died of asphyxiation, but they made me put COVID.'"

"'Well, this guy was stabbed to death, but they made me put down COVID,'" the musician continued, inventing scenarios in order to prove his point. "'This guy was run over by a tandem gravel truck doing a four-wheel drift and the crows be pecking at your flesh, but they made me put down COVID-19.'"

Nugent also previously said that he would refuse any vaccines, per The Independent. "I ain't taking no vaccine," he assured fans, expressing his distrust of any vaccination program associated with the U.S. government. "You come at me with a needle and I will be in fear of my life. You know what I'll do if you come at me with a needle."

If Nugent had received a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, his chances of contracting the virus would have been much smaller: both have been proven at least 94% effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to Yale Medicine.