Rachel Maddow: I Had Swine Flu!

Rachel Maddow revealed Monday night on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" that she suffered from swine flu.

"I had the flu," she told Fallon. "The capital F Flu. I went and I got diagnosed, and everything, and I got the special swine flu drugs. I'm better!"

"The audience should be in a bubble right now," Fallon told her.

"It was a really stanky flu and I had to take a week off," she said.

Maddow added that while health care is usually "the most boring topic in the whole world," it's "been really fun to cover" because of the "dramatic," "crazy" opposition.

Maddow would also divulge that her first date with partner Susan Mikula was at a shooting range.

"I like making liberals shoot guns, I just don't think we should be able to take them home," she said.

In the second segment, Maddow and Fallon made a White Lady cocktail.

Watch:

Comments

[gevan]

Last month I had a summer cold that turned into pneumonia and landed me in the hospital (Aug. 18) but the whole time nobody even mentioned the swineflu.

[TN]

I'd rather get the flu any new vacines are too great of risk. They'll find out in 10 years it caused some horrific medical problem.

[GrizzlyBowman]

People seem to think that a vaccination is magical: You get the needle and suddenly you have absolutely no risk of disease.

It doesn't work like that. Vaccinations don't succeed 100 percent of the time. In fact, they can kill you. Sure, the chance is conveniently low. And you might be extra lucky: That is, you might die.

And people who sound a lot like Liberals to me are supporting this. Do you not see how required vaccinations are unethical? There is a risk and you force it upon them. When the pro choice / anti choice argument comes up, a lot is said but at the core, it's about forcing someone to risk (e.g., hemorrhaging), and forcing some other person's choice, not giving the person forced a choice. That is antithetical to a free society.

Americans believe in freedom. The freedom to oppose measures that say to them, "Our way is the only way". Where's the ingenuity in that? Where's the diverse opinion?

Oh, there is a diverse clinical and public opinion about the H1N1 vaccine. It's just that if you're not for it, you're a crazy gun nut.

No thanks---I'll do without the gimmick vaccine.

[sarahwaters]

Will someone tell why she wears those horrible eye glasses whenever she is a guest on shows? She looks horrible in them, if she wants to take a break from her contacts, I suppose she wears them, please pick better eye glasses and since I am on the subject of her appearance, please get another hair dresser.

[auntcloud]

The glasses are 20% of the reason I find her so hot, and I'd wager that many people feel similarly.

But setting that aside, it's disappointing that the American public spends so much energy critiquing the fashion choices of important people, particularly female public figures. She's a journalist, not a contestant in the Miss America Pageant.

[crowmeris]

Why should she change her hair or her glasses?

She likes them. Who else should she try to please but herself? Her appearance is one of the reasons her fans adore her - she is herself.

[am22]

RM is nerdy hot!

[allwrite]

Rachel,
Don't do anymore talk shows with Dick Armey.

[MonaLisa65]

I agree. You make him dodge, dance and weave too much, and at his age, he shouldn't exert himself like that!

[auntcloud]

The moment in the interview where Fallon gives her flack for reading a graphic novel, that was so embarrassing. . . for Fallon, I mean. Yes, Jimmy, Joe Sacco is a fine artist. Palestine won an American book award, and it contains a forward by Edward Said himself. (Then again, I'll wager money that Fallon has no idea who that is.)

[Timothy Foley]

No matter If It was Swine Flu or Not I just Glad Rachel's Back and Healthy Again.

[Vinca]

I'm glad Maddow is well. She must have had one of those less serious cases. About 3 months ago, I felt like I could have had a flu of some kind. I went ou and got some SAMBUCOL, and drank lots of orange juice. I soon was well, from whatever I had . It started with a sore throat, whic always seems to be the case if I get a chest congestion.

[dirtydishrag]

If swine flu were an STD, I would love to contract it from her.

[petef59]

Rachel! Please do not invite Pat Buchanon to your show anymore. He has to be a carrier.

[charon]

Don't know if he has the flu, he is a swine though.

[italianman004]

Rachel has so much confidence and is such an Intelligent Woman. MSNBC Thank you for bringing her on board.

[jackbutler5555]

Yeah, but if Rachel had Swine Flu under the Obama health care plan, she would had H1N1 virus. She'd be out sick for a week.

[MonaLisa65]

Um... she WAS out sick for a week. 4th paragraph.

[MNmommy]

You could tell that she had had the flu when she got back. She sounded awful still.

I wondered if it was h1n1.

Feel better quickly, Rachel!

[mrsbee]

Tom Ridge was shown up as a double talking Republican politico...he was on Scarborough's show and that was a soft interview...some difference between RM and JS...

[FreedomCorpse]

the difference: journalism versus non-journalism

[bazokbros]

Where Rachel failed miserably is when she went after Ridge for the liner notes inside the dust jacket. When Ridge said, "That's not what I meant." Rachel's immediate and only response was "OK" and then she asked another question.

She did not at all say to him "how can this be wrong and this is your book. Either you are not telling the truth or you have the worst proofers and editors in book history."

[rf-hawaii]

" She did not at all say to him "how can this be wrong and this is your book. Either you are not telling the truth or you have the worst proofers and editors in book history."

Which she felt (correctly) didn't need to be said. It was understood by most of us.

[regularmess]

Is it time to remember yet? http://thehappeningstory.blogspot.com/

[Anthony Anderson - Huffpost Blogger]

That post was WAY too long, just looking at the length made me close the window. Be concise!!!

I thought we werent allowed to put web links up?

http://www.rawmodel.com !!!!!!!

[CPR]

I love Rachel. I use to watch her when she was on Tucker Carlson's show. She is the only one I will watch when they need a fill in for Keith (countdown). I missed her while she was out sick. She is second to none in my book.