Charles Has Got It - So Could You

For so many people out there, the Coronavirus pandemic has been something that they can’t get their heads round, because it isn’t happening to them. Hence the resentment at pubs being closed and restrictions placed on movements. And hence the litany of claims that there should be no fuss because flu kills thousands every winter, thousands die of cancer, and many were going to die anyway. Then the heir to the throne got it.

One has been feeling positively ghastly

As the BBC has reported, “The Prince of Wales has tested positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has confirmed. Prince Charles, 71, is displaying mild symptoms ‘but otherwise remains in good health’, a spokesman said. The Duchess of Cornwall, 72, has also been tested but does not have the virus … Clarence House said Charles and Camilla were now self-isolating at Balmoral”. And there was more.

“An official statement read: ‘In accordance with government and medical advice, the prince and the duchess are now self-isolating at home in Scotland … The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire, where they met the criteria required for testing … It is not possible to ascertain from whom the prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks.’”

You never know, unless you cut down the amount of contact you make, who might have the virus, and so if you contract it, have no idea where you got it. Maybe the ranks of the sceptical Gammonati will now understand that it is not just about people somewhere else.

There was, as one might expect, more than a little media scepticism about the response to this news, with Janine Gibson of the FT musing “We now interrupt all our other coronavirus coverage because the heir to the throne has it”. But, as Barbara Malmet pointed out, “It doesn’t matter to #coronavirus if you are a prince or a pauper. Prince Charles has it”.

There were the inevitable memes, one being the inevitable attempts by our free and fearless press to get an angle on the story that blames someone they don’t like. So we also got “Prince Charles gets the virus - Journalist racing to see who can blame it on Meghan Markle first” and “*Prince Charles gets corona virus* … Journalists tryna figure out a way to blame Meghan Markle”. And then came the “What about me me me?”

Which inevitably leads us to self-promoting TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley Dooda, speaking mainly for Herself Personally Now. “Question: most of my family (including 2 in their 70s) have had more than mild symptoms of coronavirus. We haven’t been offered tests. Why is it one rule for a royal prince and one rule for the rest of us? Prince Charles’s health is not more important than anyone else’s”. But there is someone more important than even her.

James Felton hinted who that might be. “It would be nice if the people working in the NHS coming into contact with hundreds of people could get tested as easily as a man who has an actual palace to self-isolate in (Obviously I also hope Prince Charles recovers quickly also).” To which Rachael Cousins added “Prince Charles had mild #COVID19 symptoms by all accounts. Really glad he got tested so quickly. Tens of thousands of NHS staff are literally putting their lives on the line, 24 hours a day, for people like us. Why aren’t they being tested as quickly as the Prince of Wales?” Well, quite.

Now Royalty has got it, let’s take it seriously. Including testing for NHS personnel.

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