Prince Charles has spoken of his empathy for the people who have lost loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic, and that they could not be with them. He calls it ‘the most ghastly thing’.
“I feel particularly for those who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That, to me, is the most ghastly thing,” The Prince of Wales said.
Prince Charles speaks about coronavirus to Sky News
Charles, 71, spoke to Sky’s royal correspondent, Rhiannon Mills, as part of their ‘After The Pandemic: Our New World’ series. He took part in a Zoom call from Birkhall.
Mentioning his own case of the virus, Charles commented: “I was lucky in my case… but I’ve had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through.”
The future King only suffered mild symptoms of the disease, and was back to work after his seven-day isolation period. The Duchess of Cornwall was also tested, being over-70 and therefore a high-risk person, but was free of the virus.
Birkhall, Prince Charles’ Scottish residence near Ballater, Aberdeenshire.
“But in order to prevent this happening to so many more people, I’m so determined to find a way out of this.”
Presumably he refers to a vaccine and supporting the scientists in find a way to beat Covid-19.
“I can’t tell you how much I sympathise with the way that everyone has had to endure with this unbelievably testing and challenging time.”
The Prince also commented that the experience had made him more determined to “push and shout and prod” for sustainable business practices – and the environment – to be put at the “centre of our economy”.
“Before this, nature has just been pushed to the peripheries, we’ve exploited and dug up and cut down everything as if there was no tomorrow, as if it doesn’t matter.”
The Prince of Wales during his interview with Sky about Covid-19
He is worried that, without learning from the pandemic, the world may face a similar threat again: “The more we erode the natural world, the more we destroy biodiversity, the more we expose ourselves to this kind of danger.
“We’ve had these other disasters with SARS and Ebola and goodness knows what else, all of these things are related to the loss of biodiversity. So we have to find a way this time to put nature back at the centre.”
Charles today spoke at a virtual conference to launch ‘The Great Reset’, which wants businesses & communities to ‘build back better’, by putting sustainable practices at the heart of the their operations after the Coronavirus pandemic.
He gave opening remarks at the start of the meeting, before handing over to Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
The initiative hopes to ‘reimagine, rebuild, redesign, reinvigorate and rebalance the world’, to align with, and where necessary, go beyond, the 2030 Agenda (Sustainable Development Goals) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
You can see Prince Charles’ Sky News interview this evening.
https://twitter.com/SkyRhiannon/status/1268282952720547841
