Queen Elizabeth II took to the airwaves to reassure people that, in the fight against the coronavirus, “we will succeed.”
The address, a rarity which aired Sunday, was brief but optimistic in tone. “[W]e join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal,” the 93-year-old monarch said. “We will succeed, and that success will belong to every one of us.”
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Her message comes at a critical time. As of publication, 47,806 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the U.K. — including her son, Prince Charles and Prime Minister Boris Johnson — and 4,934 deaths from it have been reported. The Queen did not shy away from the unprecedented nature of this pandemic, observing that “while we have faced challenges before, this one is different.”
In addition to the health and economic impacts of coronavirus on countries around the world, the Queen also noted the emotional toll isolation takes on individuals. But “we should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return,” the Queen added. “We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again.”
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Women leaders from around the world have similarly offered guidance in these troubling times — for example, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has several proposals for ways to address the fallout from coronavirus.
People will surely continue to look to them until we all, as the Queen herself put it, “return to more normal times.”
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