• Brooke Baldwin opened up about her experience with the novel coronavirus.
  • The CNN anchor's symptoms included a lost sense of smell, fevers, chills, and body aches.
  • Baldwin said the virus impacted her emotional health, bringing her to tears every night.

Brooke Baldwin is the latest CNN news anchor to share her experience with the novel coronavirus. In a new essay, the 40-year-old said she tested positive for COVID-19 in early April, and it took a "full two-week beating" on her body and mental health.

Baldwin detailed her symptoms, which included a lost senses of smell and taste. "I can remember the day before I lost my ability to taste or smell. I kept smelling the acrid ammonia-like odor of jewelry cleaner. Except there wasn't any jewelry cleaner in sight," she said. The next day, those sensed vanished.

"Along with my appetite, my energy was also zapped," she continued. "I slept easily 10 to 12 hours at night, waking many mornings soaking wet having sweat through the sheets. A golf-ball sized gland swelling under my jaw became the daily sign that my body was fighting."

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Baldwin also had fevers, chills, and constant body aches that would "leave just long enough to fool me into thinking I was finally recovering," she said, adding that they would then revisit with a vengeance. "I never knew when it would end. It was relentless, scary, and lonely."

The virus also took a toll on her mentally. "Under the influence of coronavirus, as each day came to a close, I would often cry, unable to stave off the sense of dread and isolation I felt about what was to come," she wrote.

"On the darker days, I didn't want to talk to anyone. After days of trying to stay physically apart from my husband, it just became impossible," she said, adding that her husband took care of her and wouldn't let her be alone. "He began to hold me in those darker moments and let me cry, whispering: 'Everything's going to be all right.'"

For Baldwin, the time with her husband was restorative. "The isolation might be worse than the body aches. I am endlessly grateful that I have a selfless husband who is also lucky enough to have remained well while I was ailing," she said.

Following her experience with coronavirus, Baldwin considers herself lucky. "My version of coronavirus did not take suffocating hold of my lungs the way it has with thousands of other patients, sending many of them to the ER," she said. "I never struggled to breathe. Even though my body constantly gave me the middle finger, my lungs did not."

Although her experience with the virus was challenging and scary, she learned some valuable lessons. "I am grateful for the reminders this virus provided: First, that clarity comes from being quiet and listening to our feelings. And second, that connection is more vital to our health and happiness than we might care to admit," she said.

"It was overwhelming in a way I have never felt in my life," she added. "And it showed me how—even when the world stops and takes a collective breath—we're all capable of showing up for one another. And for that, I will forever be grateful."

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