TO BE OR NOT TO BE…(VAXXED) THAT IS THE QUESTION..
First man in world to get approved Covid jab is dead: Brit William Shakespeare has died at 81 t.co/9mnSlgihyy pic.twitter.com/8jgmnwggOW
— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) May 25, 2021
William Shakespeare, the first man in the world to have an approved Covid jab, has died in hospital aged 81 after a long battle with an unrelated illness.
Bill, as he was known, made global headlines on so-called V-Day on December 8 when he received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab at the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.
The former Rolls Royce employee and parish councillor passed away last Thursday after a period of illness at the same hospital where he famously received his vaccine.
At the time, much was played on the fact that he was called William Shakespeare and was from Warwickshire, but the pensioner was a fiercely proud Coventrian according to his friends.
When he received the Pfizer jab last year he had been an in-patient at the hospital’s frailty ward. He said after getting the historic drug that it was ‘wonderful’.
A picture of Mr Shakespeare receiving the shot while wearing a pair of Christmas slippers and his hospital gown made front pages around the world.
Mr Shakespeare was the second person to get an approved vaccine after Margaret Keenan, 91, got hers at the same hospital moments earlier.
Both received the American-made Pfizer vaccine, which became the first candidate to seal approval for mass use by regulators in the UK in December.
Coventry councillor Jayne Innes, who was a friend of Mr Shakespeare, said the ‘best tribute to Bill is to have the jab’.