The Queen is simply from the glove-and-hat-wearing generation. I like that generation for actually taking care of their appearance, and always believing that one should not leave the house without a hat and gloves. Over time, as styles changed, the Queen remained in her gloves and hat, although she started to take the gloves off more often, especially when she did events inside the palace. That started happening more when Diana came around, and Diana would give people hugs and hold strangers’ hands. Suddenly, the Queen had to modernize just a tad too. But… with the coronavirus going around, it looks like Liz is back to wearing gloves all the time now.
The Queen wore gloves at an investiture at Buckingham Palace today, the first time she has done so since she began carrying out the ceremonies in 1952, amid warnings about the spread of coronavirus and the deadly danger it poses to the over-80s. The 93-year-old’s decision to cover her hands to above the wrists came as the Government warned that the death rate for people infected is ‘significantly ramped up’ among the elderly. Britain was also warned that a major outbreak is ‘highly likely’.
Her Majesty wears gloves when she meets the public at events or garden parties – but not at investitures where she carries out the fiddly task of fastening the awards to a hook on the recipients’ lapels. The last time she wore gloves for an investiture at all was in 1954, when she recognised Air Marshal Claude Pelly with a knighthood in Yemen.
Honestly, I’ll mock Liz of House Petty for many things, but I feel like she’s taking a very simple precaution here, if she did indeed wear gloves for coronavirus reasons. From what little we actually know about the coronavirus, it does seem to be particularly deadly for the elderly. Which reminds me that a little more than two years ago, the Queen had a really bad cold and everyone in the royal household, British media and British government completely freaked out and started reviewing their plans for what happens when the Queen kicks ye olde royal bucket. The Queen isn’t just taking precautions out of nowhere – it will truly affect the fate of the nation.
Is the Queen taking precautions over coronavirus? She wore gloves at this public ceremony.
Buckingham Palace played down the decision, saying it is not unusual for the Queen to wear gloves for public engagements. https://t.co/tDt1qjS6xl pic.twitter.com/pJzTpzH3uo
— CNN (@CNN) March 4, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
It might be a precaution… but it’s also still winter. And elderly people seem to get cold extra easily. Her skin is also likely more fragile – she could be covering bruises from a fall, or anything, really.
Exactly. She’s almost 100yo, old people tend to be cold all the time. It might be a slightly added protection against all germs (at her age, a common cold can easily turn into a pneumonia and send you to the ICU), but gloves that are worn constantly won’t protect you from anything since they’ll pick up whatever your hands would have.
That must’ve made it a lot more difficult for her to pin those medals. I can’t handle anything with gloves on.
As I understand it, the recipients are already wearing pins and she just hooks the medal over the bar of the pin.
She usually wears gloves, as her hands tend to swell from shaking hands with lots of people and yes keeping the germs at bay.
I had thought she always had gloves on. But she absolutely should take precautions as it’s very deadly for the elderly. They should probably have a big quarantine station outside the front door of the palace where everyone is detoxified like on Monsters, Inc.
In The Crown, the script implied she wore gloves because she did not like shaking hands (touching skin) with crowds of people. In fact, the phrase before going to a garden party was “gloves on!”
Is William going to mock Grumpy Granny for wearing the gloves?
Only if he wants to get slapped by one
Now that I would love to see
The Queen reprimand William for his inappropriate jokes and behavior? Never going to happen.
She always wears gloves when she’s going to be shaking a lot of hands.
I’d wear gloves too, and avoid shaking hands. We are sold out of hand sanitizer here, can’t find it anywhere. Yes need to keep hand washing but not always near a sink.
I think it’s ok.
I wear gloves when I take public transports all the time, viruses or not.
And William the peen is in Ireland making jokes about the virus. On another note, she may live for another 10 years to spite the hounds waiting to get their claws into the Crown Jewels 😂
It’s a shame that Brenda didn’t think to adequately protect her staff and the public when she had the norovirus – but hey, who cares about the serfs?
This is hardly new, it’s some protocol or such. Also, at 93+ years old she’s at risk, I’d advise her to wear gloves.
Our office has threatened to write anyone up that shows up to the office without manager approval (who have to get approval from their manager). Work from home to keep our staff as healthy as possible. We all work in an office without offices – we do have rooms for meetings. Everyone is in the main area – managers/execs included. If one person got sick, it would sweep through an office.
They would rather be safe than sorry since its an option for our line of work.