Fox News host Neil Cavuto returned to work Monday from a weekslong absence, revealing that a frightening bout of COVID-19 sent him to the intensive care.

Cavuto also was infected in October, but he said his latest experience with the virus was more severe.

“I did get COVID again, but a far, far more serious strand, what doctors called COVID pneumonia,” he told his Fox Business audience on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” “It landed me in intensive care for quite a while, and it really was touch and go.”

Cavuto, 63, is fully vaccinated and advocated for people to get inoculated after his first COVID-19 infection. 

“For God's sake, think of the bigger picture here,” he said then. “Get outside yourself and think about those you work with, those around you. Think about keeping them safe,"

Despite two infections in a matter of months, he defended the vaccine Monday, explaining he is immunocompromised and crediting the shots for saving his life.

“No, the vaccine didn't cause that,” he said of his latest illness. “That grassy knoll theory has come up a lot. My very compromised immune system did, because I've had cancer and right now I have multiple sclerosis. I am among the vulnerable 3 percent or so of the population that cannot sustain the full benefits of a vaccine. In other words, it simply doesn't last.”

Cavuto, however, said his doctors told him that if he had not been vaccinated, “I wouldn’t be here.”

“It provided some defense, but that is still better than no defense,” he said. 

Fox News did not disclose Cavuto’s illness during his absence. The host said he asked the network not to because he wanted to maintain his privacy. But he said Monday he believed his viewers deserved an explanation.