On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth II gave an address to the UK promising that "better days will return." In a rare off-calendar televised speech, the Queen offered her support to the nation and expressed gratitude for key workers and NHS frontline staff [1]. "I'm speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time, a time of disruption in the life of our country, a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all." She continued, "I want to thank everyone on the NHS frontline, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all."
The Queen went on to offer her support: "Together we are tackling this disease [2], and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it." She continued, "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any, that the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humoured resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterise this country."
"We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again. But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all," the Queen said from Windsor Castle, where she is self-isolating with Prince Philip.
This is only the Queen's fifth off-calendar speech in her 68-year reign [3]. The other four rare previous addresses included the Queen's Diamond Jubilee message [4] in 2012, on the death of the Queen Mother in 2002, on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and at the time of the first Gulf War in 1991.
