The Times - UK (2022-02-21)

the times | Monday February 21 2022 7

NewsNews

February 14: Clarence House

announced that the Duchess of

Cornwall, too, had tested

positive and was self-isolating.

February 15: The ambassador of

Estonia, Viljar Lubi, went to

Buckingham Palace for a remote

audience with the Queen by

video link. She had another

video-linked audience with the

Spanish ambassador, José

Pascual Marco Martínez. The

Princess Royal visited Windsor

Castle to spend the day holding

investitures.

February 16: Looking frail, the

Queen met Rear Admiral James

Macleod, the outgoing defence

service secretary, and Major

General Eldon Millar, his

replacement, at Windsor Castle.

She was walking on a stick and

said she was unable to move,

although she managed a few

small steps forward. She shook

hands to greet both men. The

Queen used video links to carry

out her other duties: receiving

the new Bishop of Portsmouth,

Jonathan Frost, and holding a

Privy Council meeting.

February 20: Buckingham

Palace confirmed the Queen had

tested positive for coronavirus.

off for busy Queen despite fears over health

b 14 :ClarenceHouse

continue light duties at Windsor over

the coming week. She will continue to

receive medical attention and will

follow all the appropriate guidelines.”

A short while later, the Queen

offered her congratulations to Team

GB’s women’s curling team, who had

just won gold at the Beijing Winter

Olympic Games.

Although the Queen, 95, is believed

to be triple-jabbed, there remain

concerns because of her age and

health scares last year.

Until recently she had been on

doctors’ orders to rest since mid-

October, after cancelling a run of

engagements and spending a night in

hospital for preliminary tests.

Last week, she referred to her frailty

during an in-person engagement.

Standing while using a walking

stick, she pointed to her left leg or foot

and said: “Well, as you can see, I can’t

move.”

Fears had been raised for the Queen

after she met the Prince of Wales on

February 8, two days before it was

announced that he had tested positive

for Covid-19.

These were alleviated as she

continued to carry out in-person

Covid cases have also been diagnosed

in the Windsor Castle team.

The Queen’s diagnosis comes after

almost two years of regimented

efforts to protect her from the virus.

When she gave a rare televised

address to the nation drawing on the

“enormous changes to the daily lives of

us all” in April 2020, a lone camera oper-

ator was wearing a hazmat suit. At that

point no vaccinations were available.

The Queen has been looked after by a

core group of staff in Windsor, which is

said to have been described as the

“HMS Bubble” by Tony Johnstone-

Burt, master of the royal household.

The painful image of her sitting alone

at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last

year became one of the most powerful

of the pandemic.

The news about the Queen’s positive

test came as the government prepared

to end Covid restrictions in England.

Dickie Arbiter, a former press secre-

tary to the Queen, pointed out that she

was “still pretty fit and healthy” for her

age, despite the recent concerns for her

health. “She’s a very determined

woman, very stoic and very pragmatic.”

Royals ignore Princess Anne at their peril,

Libby Purves, page 27

engagements last week. The Duchess

of Cornwall tested positive for the

coronavirus last Monday, four days

after her husband. Charles has now

recovered.

It is understood that a number of

The Queen meeting

the incoming and

outgoing defence

service secretaries at

Windsor Castle on

February 16. On

February 5, left, she

was at a reception for

the start of the jubilee

at Sandringham. Two

days later, bottom

left, she left by

helicopter for Windsor

STEVE PARSONS/PA

Profile

‘Being doctor

to Her Majesty

is an honour’

T

he Queen invested a

special knighthood on

her doctor Sir Huw

Thomas as one of her

first public acts after she

had recovered from a period of

rest late last year (Dominic

Kennedy writes).

She bestowed on him the

insignia of a Knight Commander

of the Royal Victorian Order, an

honour in her personal gift given

for services to the sovereign. The

announcement was made in the

new year honours 2021. Thomas

has said that his priority with the

royal family was keeping them

safe during the pandemic.

The ceremony, where the

Queen also received Lady

Thomas, took place on November

23 at Windsor Castle. Weeks

earlier she had spent a night in

hospital, was ordered to rest and

pulled out of engagements

including the Remembrance

Sunday service at the Cenotaph.

Since 2014 Thomas, 63, has

been physician to the Queen and

head of the medical household,

where he has worked for 15 years.

He is also a professor of

gastrointestinal genetics at

Imperial College London.

“It is a great honour to be

physician to the Queen. It’s a very

enjoyable and rewarding role —

completely different from what I

would normally be doing,” he said

in an interview on the college’s

website to mark his knighthood.

“The nature of the work is

interesting because you see how a

whole different organisation, the

royal household, operates. You

very much become part of that

organisation and become the

personal doctor to the principal

people in it, who are patients just

like other patients.”

He added: “My role at the

medical household doesn’t have

fixed sessions, and it’s as and

when I’m needed.”

Doctors have said that a fully

vaccinated Covid-19 patient

of the Queen’s age has little to fear

from the virus.

Dr Mark Porter, an NHS GP and

a columnist for The Times, said:

“The risk of serious complications

are small in an otherwise generally

healthy 95-year-old — in part due

to Omicron being milder than

previous variants, but mostly

because of the protection from

triple vaccination.”

The outlook would be even

better with antiviral treatments if

her doctor said they were needed.

“Nearly all my older triple-

vaccinated patients have

shrugged off Omicron within a

week,” Porter said.

Antiviral and antibody

treatments available on the NHS

include Paxlovid, Pfizer’s Covid-

drug. The company said test results

showed that the treatment reduced

the chance of hospitalisation or

death by 88 per cent when given

to Covid patients at risk of

serious illness within five days of

showing symptoms.

Jennifer Burns, president of the

British Geriatrics Society, said the

high rate of vaccinations among

older Britons was resulting in

milder symptoms and a better

prognosis for Covid victims.

“It is concerning when any older

person tests positive, but the level

of protection that the vaccination

provides is significant,” she said.

‘Little to fear’

when jabbed

Billy Kenber, Dominic Kennedy