Lesley Stahl says on ‘60 Minutes’ she was hospitalized with COVID-19

NEW YORK —  CBS News “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl said Sunday that she was finally feeling well after a battle with COVID-19 that left her hospitalized for a week.

The veteran television journalist said she was “really scared” after fighting pneumonia caused by the coronavirus for two weeks at home before going to the hospital.

“One of the rules of journalism is, ‘don’t become part of the story,’ ” Stahl, 78, said at the end of Sunday’s broadcast of “60 Minutes.” “But instead of covering the pandemic, I was one of the more than 1 million Americans who did become part of it.”

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Stahl is the dean of correspondents at television’s best-known newsmagazine. She joined “60 Minutes” in March 1991, and before that was moderator of the Sunday talk show “Face the Nation” and a Washington correspondent.

She landed the first television interview with Donald Trump after he was elected president, and the first with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she become speaker — both in 2007 and again in 2019.

Stahl said there was a cluster of “60 Minutes” employees with the virus. One “had almost no symptoms while others had almost every symptom you can imagine,” she said. “Each case is different.”

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Stahl said she found an overworked and nearly overwhelmed staff when she was hospitalized but paid tribute to their care, and said she was wheeled out through a gauntlet of cheering medical workers when discharged.

“In the face of so much death, they celebrate their triumphs,” she said.

“60 Minutes” declined to name the hospital involved.

“Thanks to them, like so many other patients, I am well now,” she said. “Tonight, we all owe them our gratitude, our admiration and, in some cases, our lives.”