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Queen Elizabeth May Go Public After Having COVID-19 Vaccine

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth speaks with staff during a visit to the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Science Park near Salisbury, Britain October 15, 2020. Ben Stansall/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth speaks with staff during a visit to the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Science Park near Salisbury, Britain October 15, 2020. Ben Stansall/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Queen Elizabeth May Go Public After Having COVID-19 Vaccine

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth speaks with staff during a visit to the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Science Park near Salisbury, Britain October 15, 2020. Ben Stansall/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth speaks with staff during a visit to the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Science Park near Salisbury, Britain October 15, 2020. Ben Stansall/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip may “let it be known” once they have received a vaccine against COVID-19, The Times newspaper reported, citing unnamed royal aides.

The 94-year-old monarch and her 99-year-old spouse are likely to be among the first to be offered a jab, with the government prioritizing elderly people as it begins the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine that was approved on Dec. 2.

The queen is highly admired in British society, and her public backing for the vaccine would be a powerful message to counter anti-vaccination misinformation circulating online, Reuters reported.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 60,000 people in the United Kingdom and infected more than 1.7 million.

The royal family has not been untouched, with both heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his eldest son Prince William testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the year.

Under the government’s priority list for the vaccine roll-out, the first doses are intended to be given to elderly care home residents and their carers, followed by people over 80 and health service staff.

The Times said that in 1957, the queen made public that Charles and his sister Princess Anne, then 8 and 6, had been inoculated against polio, helping to ease concerns about potential side-effects of what was then a new vaccine.

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Venice Is Sinking… But Italian Engineer Suggests Plan to Lift the City

Boats sail on a canal as flags of EU, Italy and Venice fly at half-mast at the building of Veneto Regional Council to pay tribute to the late Pope Francis in Venice on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP)
Boats sail on a canal as flags of EU, Italy and Venice fly at half-mast at the building of Veneto Regional Council to pay tribute to the late Pope Francis in Venice on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP)
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Venice Is Sinking… But Italian Engineer Suggests Plan to Lift the City

Boats sail on a canal as flags of EU, Italy and Venice fly at half-mast at the building of Veneto Regional Council to pay tribute to the late Pope Francis in Venice on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP)
Boats sail on a canal as flags of EU, Italy and Venice fly at half-mast at the building of Veneto Regional Council to pay tribute to the late Pope Francis in Venice on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP)

It’s the “floating city” but also the sinking city. In the past century, Venice has subsided by around 25 centimeters, or nearly 10 inches, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, the average sea level in Venice has risen nearly a foot since 1900.

It’s a tortuous pairing that means one thing: Not just regular flooding, but an inexorable slump of this most beloved of cities into the watery depths of its famous lagoon.

For visitors, its precarious status is part of the attraction of Venice — a need to visit now before it’s too late, a symbol that humanity cannot win against the power of nature.

For Venetians, the city’s island location has for centuries provided safety against invasion, but also challenges.

Tides have got ever higher and more frequent as the climate crisis intensifies. And the city sinks around two millimeters a year due to regular subsidence.

But what if you could just... raise the city? It sounds like science fiction. In fact it’s the idea of a highly respected engineer who thinks it could be the key to saving Venice.

While the Italian government is currently spending millions of euros each year raising flood barriers to block exceptionally high tides from entering the lagoon, Pietro Teatini, associate professor in hydrology and hydraulic engineering at the nearby University of Padua, says that pumping water into the earth deep below the city would raise the seabed on which it sits, pushing Venice skyward.

By raising the level of the city by 30 centimeters (just under 12 inches), Teatini believes that he could gift Venice two or three decades — during which time the city could work out a permanent way to fight the rising tides.

“We can say we have in front of us 50 years [including the lifespan of the MOSE] to develop a new strategy,” he says, according to CNN. “We have to develop a much more drastic project.”