ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccine: Claim that first volunteer in the UK corona virus vaccine trial has died is false

Volunteer says she is 'doing fine' after online death rumours

A false news article headlined "First Volunteer in UK Corona Virus Trial, Elisa Granato, Dies" was shared by social media users on Sunday, April 26, 2020 (here) (here).

The claim made in this article is untrue. Elisa Granato was one of the first two volunteers to be injected in a trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine at Oxford University on Thursday April 23, 2020 (here) (here).

@BBCFergusWalsh
Fake news has been circulating on social media that the first volunteer in the Oxford vaccine trial has died. This is not true! I spent several minutes this morning chatting with Elisa Granato via Skype. She is very much alive and told me she is feeling “absolutely fine”

The University of Oxford News Office confirmed on April 26 that she was “alive and well”. Reuters reported.

Granato and Edward O’Neill received an injection of a vaccine labelled “ChAdOx1 nCoV-19”.

The Oxford scientists said last week that large-scale production capacity was being put in place to make millions of doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 shot, even before trials show whether it is effective (here).

VERDICT: false.

Elisa Granato, a volunteer in a trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine at Oxford University, is alive and well, the University confirmed to Reuters on April 26, 2020.

Granato said she is “doing fine”, Following the article about her “death”, she tweeted about the news before making her Twitter account private. She wrote: “Nothing like waking up to a fake article on your death ... I’m doing fine everyone.”

The government later said the article was “completely untrue”, and warned people about sharing unsubstantiated claims online.

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccine is considered the ultimate exit strategy from lockdown by many experts, and scientists across the world are racing to develop one that can be produced at scale.

The Oxford Vaccine Group hopes to have at least a million doses ready in September.