The United Kingdom’s health secretary broke down in happy tears after the first handful of patients were given the recently unveiled COVID-19 vaccine.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock got choked up during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, shortly after Margaret Keenan, 90, and William Shakespeare, 81, were the first to receive the vaccine.
“It’s been such a tough year for so many people, and there’s William Shakespeare putting it simply for everybody — we can get on with our lives,” he said, wiping away tears. “There are still a few months to go. I’ve still got this worry that we can’t blow it now, Piers. We’ve still got to get the vaccine to millions of people, and so we’ve got to keep sticking by the rules.”
Amazing moment on @GMB this morning as Health Secretary @MattHancock broke down in tears after hearing a man named William Shakespeare talk about becoming the first man in the world to get the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. ?? pic.twitter.com/dBGpZuwPoP
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 8, 2020
“There’s so much work that’s gone into this,” Hancock said. “It makes you proud to be British.”
Keenan, who turns 91 next week, was the first person in the Western part of the world to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as the U.K. is the first country to begin distributing their vaccine. She was first in line at University Hospital Coventry, which is one of many hospitals in the country tasked with giving out the vaccine.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.”
The vaccine the U.K. is relying on was developed by U.S. drug producer Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. While they were the first country to approve and begin distributing the vaccine, other European Union drug regulators and the United States could follow suit in the coming days. There are other companies, including AstraZeneca and Moderna, who have also developed an effective vaccine but have not been approved.
To date, there have been more than 67 million COVID-19 diagnoses globally, which have resulted in more than 1.5 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker.
