Two British citizens have become the first people in the world to receive a COVID-19 Vaccine (outside of clinical trials).
Last week, the United Kingdom became the first country to approve Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine. And today, December 8, the country has started administering it to vulnerable and susceptible people. According to Business Insider, the first recipient of the vaccine was a 90-year-old woman named Margaret Keenan. Keenan was injected with the vaccine at 6:31 a.m. local time at the University Hospital in Coventry, Warwickshire.
At 6.31am, Margaret made history by becoming the first patient to receive the vaccine – all less than a year after the first case of the virus was diagnosed!
Full story: https://t.co/ZrZviITPHs
— NHS Midlands (@NHSMidlands) December 8, 2020
But Keenan wasn’t alone. Moments later, an 81-year-old man named William Shakespeare became the first man to receive the vaccine. After receiving the vaccine, Shakespeare, who grew up in Warwickshire like the man that he’s named after, said he was “pleased” and praised the hospital staff.
“It could make a difference to our lives from now on, couldn’t it?” said Shakespeare, according to the New York Times.
The Taming of the Flu
— Dave Ward (@DaveWardDrummer) December 8, 2020
But as is usual for the internet, Twitter users were quick to make a joke out of the situation, as the New York Post reports. One Twitter user described the moment of Shakespeare’s vaccination as “the Taming of the Flu,” in jest of the Shakespearean comedy “The Taming of the Shrew.”
“But was he in ward 2b or not 2b? That is the question,” one user added to the swarm of jokes.
“To be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated that is no question,” wrote actress Jane Gilbert on social media.
“Actually I heard the second person to get the vaccine was Christopher Marlowe but William Shakespeare took all the credit,” added Twitter user Tiernan Douieb, which is in reference to the theory that some of Shakespeare’s plays were penned by ghostwriters.
Jokes aside, many are happy to see what could be a light at the end of this very dark tunnel named 2020. Hopefully, the coronavirus pandemic will go out with it.
Source: Business Insider, The New York Post, The New York Times,
