Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have joined other members of Britain’s royal family to encourage people to take up vaccines to protect against Covid-19. Most recently, they addressed the issue during a video call with London-based British Indian Modha family, who spoke about getting over their anxiety around the jabs.
The 38-year-old second in line to the throne echoed his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s views on the importance of being vaccinated: "Catherine and I are not medical experts by any means but if it's any consolation, we can wholeheartedly support having vaccinations. It's really, really important.
"We've spoken to a lot of people about it and the uptake has been amazing so far. We've got to keep it going so the younger generations also feel that it's really important for them to have it.”
Shivali Modha has been shielding since the start of the pandemic due to a pre-existing medical condition and was joined on the video call by husband Hiren and their daughters Shyaama, 11, and Jyoti, 9.
She told the royals: “The idea of this vaccination is new but the more people that get it then you realise that actually it's helping and the numbers are showing that, figures are coming down – all positive things.”
The royals listened as Shivali – who has type 2 diabetes – said how posts on social media had concerned her, but that speaking to members of her family who had received their vaccine, and also medical professionals and the charity Diabetes UK, had encouraged her to get a vaccine.
The Duke noted: "So it's great that Shivali you're taking the time to work it out and come to the conclusion that 'I need to do this' because social media is awash sometimes with lots of rumours and misinformation, so we have to be a little bit careful who we believe and where we get our information from.
"Especially for those who are clinically vulnerable as well, it's so important that those vaccinations are done, so good luck."
The latest royal intervention comes after the Queen, in a video call with health officials last week, had spoken of how she had found her own experience of getting her first vaccine dose last month painless and encouraged people to think about others and get their vaccine when called by the National Health Service (NHS).
It comes as the UK continues to accelerate its vaccine rollout programme to cover all over-60s from this week, with 20 million adults already covered with the first of two doses to protect against Covid-19.