Lesley Stahl’s Coronavirus Battle: From Fears To Cheers

A frightened Lesley Stahl arrived at the hospital with COVID-19 and left days later to cheers from the medical workers she called a “valiant army.”

The “60 Minutes” correspondent, 78, recounted her experience with the coronavirus on the CBS news program Sunday. (See the video below.)

“One of the rules of journalism is: Don’t become part of the story,” she said. “But instead of covering the pandemic, I was one of the more than 1 million Americans who did become part of it.”

After spending two weeks in bed with pneumonia, Stahl said she finally went to the hospital, feeling weak and “really scared.”

“I found an overworked, nearly overwhelmed staff,” she said. “Every one of them kind, sympathetic, gentle and caring from the moment I arrived until the moment days later when I was wheeled out through a gauntlet of cheering medical workers.”

Stahl hailed “this valiant army in scrubs and masks” and thanked the hospital workers profusely for helping her recover.

“Tonight, we all owe them our gratitude, our admiration ― and in some cases, our lives,” Stahl said.

Stahl isn’t the only journalist who has become part of the story. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin and Chris Cuomo are also among COVID-19 patients to have recovered from the coronavirus.

The pandemic has infected more than 3.5 million people worldwide and killed at least 247,000.