Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh were given the coronavirus jab on Saturday at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace has confirmed. The vaccination programme has been live in the UK since early December but royals were not given priority in the immunisation queue, sparking outrage among royal fans.
Some took to Twitter to express their anger as they considered the Monarch and the Duke should have been vaccinated sooner.
One Twitter user said: “Hot take, the queen and prince Phillip should have been first to take the vaccine to help public confidence in it.”
Another person echoed similar remarks, adding: “The Queen should have been first.
“She is in the dangerous demographic and if the world is so certain there is nothing to fear from the vaccine then there is no problem, right?”
A third commenter wrote: “Just wondering, has The Queen had this Covid-19 vaccine? If not, why not? She should have been in the first batch.
“Are they trying it out on a few of us peasants first I wonder.”
But not everyone agreed the Monarch should have received the jab first.
One person said: “#ThisMorning just been discussing if the queen should be the first to get a vaccine.
“She sits in her heavily guarded palace with the world’s best medical care so… no. No she shouldn’t.”
Others questioned why the Queen and Philip were vaccinated later than other people who are younger, such as Stanley Johnson, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s father.
One user asked: “I’m certainly no royalist, but how is it that Stanley Johnson was vaccinated before the Queen?”
In a public statement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock expressed his “delight” that the Queen and Philip decided to take the vaccine.
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He wrote on Twitter: “I’m delighted that Her Majesty the Queen & HRH the Duke of Edinburgh have received their Covid vaccine.
“We are defeating this virus jab by jab.”
However, they were not the first members of a Monarchy who participated in the immunisation drive.
Queen Margrethe of Denmark became the first royal to be vaccinated against the pathogen.
The Royal Danish Court released a statement confirming the news that Margrethe II had been vaccinated on New Year’s Day.
The Danish monarch is scheduled to take a second dose of the jab later this month.
The statement from the Royal Court read: “Her Majesty the Queen was vaccinated today against Covid-19.
“The Queen will be re-vaccinated in about three weeks’ time.”
