Rachel Maddow begs viewers to ‘recalibrate’ their concern over COVID-19 after it nearly killed her partner

Rachel Maddow returned to her MSNBC show, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Thursday night, where she opened up about her partner Susan Mikula’s terrifying battle with COVID-19, and the new perspective it has given her. Maddow announced on November 6th that she would be leaving the show to quarantine after learning her partner’s positive test. And while Maddow has tested negative for the virus, the fear of losing her partner was devastating.

“My relationship with Susan is the only thing at the end of the day that I would kill or die for without hesitation,” said Maddow. “And Susan has been sick with covid these past couple of weeks. And at one point we really thought that there was a possibility that it might kill her.”

Maddow also pleaded with viewers to be extra vigilant as cases are on the rise everywhere.

“You can't say, ‘I'm willing to just get it myself and play the odds,’” said Maddow. “You don't get that choice. It won't necessarily be you. It will be the person you most care about in the world, and how can you bear that?

Video Transcript

[WHOOSH]

RACHEL MADDOW: My relationship with Susan is the only thing at the end of the day that I would kill or die for without hesitation. And Susan has been sick with COVID these past couple of weeks. And at one point we really thought that there was a possibility that it might kill her.

- Rachel Maddow returned to her MSNBC show Thursday night, where she opened up about her partner Susan Mikula's terrifying battle with COVID-19 and the new perspective it's given her.

RACHEL MADDOW: Whatever you have calculated into your life as acceptable risk, as inevitable risk, you know something that you're willing to go through in terms of this virus because statistically, hey, probably it will be fine for you and your loved ones, I'm just here to tell you to recalibrate that.

- Maddow announced on November 6 that she would be leaving the show to quarantine after learning of her partner's positive test. And while Maddow has tested negative for the virus, the fear of losing her partner was devastating.

RACHEL MADDOW: What you need to know is that whoever is the most important person in your life, whoever you most love and most care for and most cherish in the world, that's the person who you may lose.

Or who you may spend weeks up all night freaking out about and calling doctors all over the place and over and over again all night long, trying to figure out how to keep that person breathing and out of the hospital.

- Maddow's incredibly personal story touched her co-worker Chris Hayes as well as her hundreds of thousands of fans, with one viewer tweeting, "Wow, I thought I had seen Rachel Maddow at her best many times. I was wrong. I saw her at her best tonight."

With cases of COVID-19 continuing to climb, Maddow pleaded with her viewers to be overly cautious. Because she has found that the only thing worse than getting the virus is watching someone you love battle it.

RACHEL MADDOW: You can't say I'm willing to just get it myself and play the odds. You don't get that choice. It won't necessarily be you. It'll be the person you most care about in the world, and how can you bear that?

[WHOOSH]