Prince William was one of the first people to congratulate the Oxford researchers following their breakthrough in the COVID-19 vaccine development with AstraZeneca. The Duke of Cambridge joined the video conference call on Monday to speak with the team working to develop a preventive medication or the potentially deadly disease.
According to People, Prince William offered his "huge, huge congratulations" to the Oxford team and recalled that he met them in June amid the pressure to come up with a solution to the pandemic. The second in line to the British throne remarked that he is so thrilled that the researchers were able to crack the mystery of the virus.
BBC reported that Oxford and AstraZeneca's research shows a 70 percent protection against COVID-19. With a few tweaks, the researchers said that they could raise the efficacy to 90 percent, similar to the research results of Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines.
The U.K. government placed a pre-order of 100 million doses from the Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is said to be cheaper than the other options. AstraZeneca plans to provide three billion vaccines globally for 2021.
But Prince William and the rest of the royal family will not be first in line to receive the vaccine. Based on the government's priority list, the frontliners and elderly citizens of the U.K. who are living in care centers are number one in the line.
The Duke of Cambridge admitted in early November that he contracted the virus in April, after his father, Prince Charles. The Sun reported that while the Prince of Wales had mild symptoms, Prince William was "hit pretty hard" by COVID-19.
However, the royal didn't announce his illness right away because he did not want to cause further worries since his father and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson were already sick. On the other hand, his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, had to be protected and isolated since she belongs to the vulnerable group at 94 years old.
Prince William self-isolated in Anmer Hall and received care from the royal doctors. His wife, Kate Middleton, and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, tested negative.
During his trip to the Oxford Vaccine Group over the summer, Prince William personally saw the researchers' work and commended them for their incredibly fascinating work. The team was the first to kick off a COVID-19 vaccine development as early as March and conducted trials among 20,000 volunteers.
