In the UK, there are various stages of lockdown being imposed as COVID-19 infections continue to climb. Liverpool is at the most restricted level of lockdown and not sure if you saw the footage the other day but people were partying on the streets, in tightly-packed crowds, just before the lockdown was imposed. So… ummmm…OK. 

 

And now the Queen has stepped out for her first public in person engagement, with Prince William joining her, since the start of the pandemic and they weren’t wearing masks. 

The Daily Mail is reporting that “Kensington Palace declined to comment as to whether [Prince William] was also required to have a test in order to be able to accompany his grandmother”. The Daily Mail, however, is also trying to spin this as the Queen is “sending a message of confidence to the people, she’s going back to work, she’ll go about her business in the usual way, but without taking chances. She is reassuring the public that things must go on as normal, wherever it is safe to do so”. 

 

Wherever it is safe? 

So, hey, for those of us who aren’t the Queen of England – so basically everyone – whenever you have to go somewhere, say the grocery store or the butcher, do all the people you might potentially encounter, are they required to be take a COVID test? Do they all get administered before your arrival? 

No? You mean you don’t have the luxury that the Queen does to carry on as “normal, wherever it is safe to do so”? It’s always going to be safer for HER, for f-ck’s sake! She’s the Queen!

But “normal”, and “wherever it is safe to do so” is a LOT different for her subjects. And for her subjects and everyone else in the world, wearing a mask right now is the responsible thing to do, to protect our loved ones and the overwhelmed healthcare system.

 

That said…

She’s 94. And there are some people who are …well… senior citizens have trouble with masks, with the breathing, and sure, yes, I get that. But I’m not seeing anyone in her entourage wearing a mask. Why aren’t they wearing a mask to support the message of scientists and what they’ve said about the importance of masks, and the doctors and nurses who are at risk every day, the people actively trying to shut this sh-t down?! Can’t they wear masks? 

Or is this some f-cking rule that the Queen’s inferiors (in other words, everyone) can’t be masked in her presence the way, I dunno, you have to take your hat off during the national anthem, like as a sign of respect? If that’s the case, that’s the thing with these royal people and these royal rules – their hierarchy, their superiority, their goddamn PROTOCOLS – even in the time of a pandemic, you know? Because if you start relaxing the royal requirements during a pandemic, when people are sick and dying, then …dun dun dun… will the monarchy not be as relevant? It’s their eternal preoccupation: the existence of the monarchy. As long as the monarchy survives, who cares about anything/anyone else?