CLAIM
Social media is abuzz with a claim that the first volunteer in a trial for a COVID-19 vaccine in the UK has died.
“Elisa Granato, the first volunteer who availed herself in Oxford for a jab in the first Europe human trial of a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus pandemic has died.
She died two days after the vaccine was administered, authorities have said and added that an investigation into the cause of the death has been initiated (sic),” the claim reads.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The post about Dr Elisa Granato’s death is false.
A Google keyword search using “Elisa Granato” directed us to several news articles which suggested that, on 24 April, the microbiologist became the first human to be injected for the human trial phase of a vaccine in the UK against the novel coronavirus, being developed by a group of scientists at the University of Oxford.
We observed that no credible news website carried the news of Elisa Granato’s death. The claim stemmed from an article titled ‘First volunteer in UK coronavirus vaccine trial has died’ published on a website called News NT.
A Tweetdeck search using “Elisa Granato” helped us find a tweet by BBC Journalist Fergus Walsh, who has debunked the fake claim.
Further, UK's department of health and social care has also tweeted debunking the false claim. “News circulating on social media that the first volunteer in a UK coronavirus vaccine trial has died is completely untrue,” the tweet read.
The final confirmation came from a tweet by Dr Granato herself, who called the article “fake” and assured people that she is doing fine.
So. clearly, a fake article went viral on social media to falsely claim that Dr Granato is dead.
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