The first man to get publicly vaccinated for COVID-19 in the world died of an unrelated illness about six months after receiving the jab, according to multiple reports.
The 81-year-old man died at the same medical center in Coventry where he remained as a patient. He received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab in early December, shortly after 91-year-old Margaret Keenan, the first woman who got the shot.
His wife said in a tribute to her husband he was “so grateful” and “hugely proud” to being offered to become one of the first persons in the world to be given the vaccine.
“Bill was so grateful for being offered the opportunity to become one of the first people in the world to be given the vaccine,” she said. “It was something he was hugely proud of—he loved seeing the media coverage and the positive difference he was able to make to the lives of so many.”
Shakespeare leaves behind his wife of 53 years, two sons, as well as his grandchildren.
He had a passion for photography and was also very talented with it, his wife said. He also regularly attended gigs to take photos of the musicians for his love of Jazz music and passion to help people in any way possible.
“I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford,” said Brian Pinker, a kidney dialysis patient who received the jab in early January.
The first Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine inoculations came just under a month since the UK also became the first country in the world to commence the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
Trevor Cowlett, an 88-year-old music teacher, was reportedly the second person in the world, bar those who have received it in clinical trials, to get the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, and Andrew Pollard, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group and its chief investigator, was the third.
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