Oct 4, 2021
Listen to Big Daddy: ‘Why not get vaccinated?’
Richard “Big Daddy” Salgado, 56, is a longtime Fox News football commentator and an insurance broker whose client base includes professional athletes and coaches – a business that focuses on maximizing opportunity and reducing risk. He shared with Coverage how his experience with COVID shaped his feelings about vaccination.
![Richard “Big Daddy” Salgado](/sites/g/files/csphws1671/files/inline-images/Profile-Pic_56.png)
One day last summer, before vaccines were available, my business partner and colleague, Anzhelika Steen-Olsen, said to me ‘You don’t sound right, you should go in and get checked out.’ So I go and do that and they tell me I need an X-ray and say it sounds like I have fluid in my lungs.
I just felt like I was dragging a bit. When I parked at the hospital, the walk from the garage to the ER that should have been about five minutes took me 25 minutes because I kept having to stop and sit down. It hit me like a brick.
I was tested for COVID and they said I didn't have it at first, but they said I needed oxygen and I couldn't go home. I was tested again after three days of getting oxygen and that time it was positive.
I spent three days in the hospital, but it took me a good five weeks to really beat this thing. It was a lot of laying around. I was sleeping on and off, going from the couch to the bed to the couch to the bed, back and forth. I wasn't able to eat and I lost my sense of smell. I have friends in the restaurant business and they were bringing me this incredible food and I couldn't even eat it!
The positive was that I lost some weight and it led me to living a cleaner and healthier lifestyle. From last August to now, I have lost 85 pounds
When I was eligible, I took the flu shot and then I took the two Moderna shots and thank God I was able to. I am an aneurysm survivor and my doctor is one of my closest friends and he has saved my life. My doctor recommended the vaccine and I listened to what he said. I listen to my guy because he is a proven winner.
I did not want to get sick and I did not want to have issues. I didn't want to go through anything else like that again. I am not a medical guy, and I think at the end of the day these doctors get paid to save lives.
Stay in your lane. You have a doctor, you have medical people, and my doctor told me to do this and thank God I did because everything has been great.
Why wouldn't you get vaccinated? That's where I scratch my head. If you can't go to certain places or you can't do certain things, then why not get vaccinated?"