Have you ever bonded with a stranger over your shared experience of catching COVID or getting the vaccine? Used it as small talk, maybe? Well, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II tried to do that, and it was a bit awkward. The queen had a virtual visit to the Royal London Hospital to commemorate its new Queen Elizabeth Unit. She met Asef Hussain, who recently recovered from a bad bout with COVID and lost his father and brother to the disease. She empathized, saying, “It does leave one very tired and exhausted, doesn’t it?”

The queen was diagnosed with COVID in February with “mild, cold-like symptoms,” according to Buckingham Palace.

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“I remember waking my wife saying that I feel like there’s no oxygen in the room. I remember sticking my head out the window, just trying to breathe, trying to get that extra oxygen,” said Asef Hussain, who was on a ventilator for seven weeks after getting COVID. He has been using a portable oxygen machine since being discharged from the Royal London Hospital.

“I’m glad that you’re getting better. It does leave one very tired and exhausted, doesn’t it? This horrible pandemic. It’s not a nice result,” Queen Elizabeth II said while speaking to Hussain and his wife, Shamina.

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