Britain’s Prince Charles spoke out against vaccine skepticism on Wednesday in a lengthy message published in a health journal.
The prince lashed out at skeptics in the essay published Wednesday for standing in the way of progress on the front of eradicating diseases, while pointing to past successes such as the end of polio in the industrialized world. He also expressed support for alternative medicine such as acupuncture.
“On the one hand, the appropriate regulation of the proven therapies of acupuncture and medical herbalism is opposed while, on the other, we find people actually opposing lifesaving vaccinations,” the prince wrote, adding both were symptoms of “intolerance” in medical debates.
“Who would have thought, for instance, that in the 21st century that there would be a significant lobby opposing vaccination, given its track record in eradicating so many terrible diseases and its current potential to protect and liberate some of the most vulnerable in our society from coronavirus?” he continued.
Charles was diagnosed with COVID-19 last year. In January, Buckingham Palace announced that his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as well as Prince Philip, had both received COVID-19 vaccines.
The palace has been embroiled in scandal for days following explosive allegations from Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Charles’s younger son Prince Harry, who both alleged racism within the royal family including discussions over the potential skin color of the couple’s first child, Archie.