Former LSU QB Jamie Howard was skeptical of the early COVID-19 pandemic measures. Then he caught the coronavirus.

“I think everyone needs to know this is a very serious thing,” Howard recently told Kevin Foote of The Advocate. “When it’s all said and done, I think a lot of us, maybe half of us, are going to be exposed to it at some point. I think we’re all just reacting differently to it.

“You don’t want people scared to see you or anything, but people need to know how serious this is. This is like the flu on steroids. Then you add the respiratory issue with it; it’s no joke at all.”

“I honestly thought this was overblown,” he also revealed in the interview. “I thought it was terrible. I thought we were shutting down the country for no reason. I definitely learned the hard way that this is very serious. I admit I was one of the ones thinking this was way overblown.”

In the interview, Howard shared his timeline of beginning to feel symptoms (fever, dry cough, “weird feeling” in lungs) on March 21. That same day, he lost his sense of taste and smell. He said only Friday was, after roughly 10 days, that he “finally started to feel close to normal again.”

“On a scale when you look at a lot of friends who have it or had it, mine is probably a little worse because of the respiratory side of it, because I ended up developing pneumonia,” Jamie said. “I had a substantial amount of fluid on my lungs from it.

“If you have any issues or your immune system is down, this is definitely a very scary situation.”

Jamie’s son Walker also tested positive for the virus. The St. Thomas Moore class of 2022 dual-threat quarterback is rated 4-stars by 247Sports. Walker’s nine scholarship offers include LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Texas A&M. Jamie had good news and bad news on his son.

“He’s fine,” Jamie said of Howard, also telling Foote that his son “isn’t feeling any symptoms at all.”

Walker’s plans, however, have been disrupted.

“We had a lot of trips planned to go to different schools for their spring practices,” Jamie said. “We were going to get on the road together and see some different places.

“It’s affecting everything. Hopefully, this season will happen this fall and everything will get back to normal.”