It began, oddly enough, with a painful shoulder – a deep muscular ache right in the spot where I’d been vaccinated. That might have been easy to dismiss. But then came agonising muscle pains in my legs that kept me awake, intense bouts of shivering and a yo-yoing fever.

A lateral flow test, followed by a PCR – both positive – confirmed what I feared.

After 18 months of writing about coronavirus for the Mail on Sunday, I had finally got it myself.

To an extent, it was perhaps inevitable. My husband was the first of our household to fall. He had been struggling for a few days with cold-like symptoms since we returned from a holiday on the Dorset coast. When he suddenly realised his sense of smell had vanished, the penny dropped. By then of course, it was too late for me – or our two children – to take evasive action.

Within a couple of days I was floored by my own symptoms, which were significantly worse than his. A pounding headache, fatigue so severe I could barely walk. I shook violently when I tried to stand, and was groggy and fuzzy-headed. What little appetite I had was diminished further by the fact I couldn’t taste or smell anything.

This was undoubtedly Covid: at this stage in the pandemic, we all know the rollercoaster roster of symptoms.

Except, at this stage in the pandemic, after one of the most successful vaccine rollouts in history, the question is whether I should have had any symptoms at all.

Like more than three-quarters of the UK population over the age of 16, I am fully vaccinated against the virus.

As a fit and healthy 42-year-old, with no known underlying health problems, my first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech jab was delivered in May; the second nearly seven weeks later, at the end of June.