Fact Check: Did the first volunteer in the UK Coronavirus vaccine trial die in 2 days?

Claim: The first volunteer in the UK coronavirus vaccine trial named Elisa Granato died during the trial.

Rating: False

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What is the rumour about?

• UK government had released a statement last week that they would be initiating the first UK vaccine trials soon. 
• According to the rumour, one of the few volunteers for the UK vaccine trial, named Elisa Granato, was injected with the vaccine on April 24, 2020, and after two days, the lady passed away.
• It is also being said that four other volunteers were battling with adverse reactions from the vaccine. 

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Who is spreading the rumour?

• One or two online news portals like News NT, n5ti, and Nigerian News were seen to have published such articles on their websites. 
• Social media forwards

Image courtesy: Facebook

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Image courtesy: Twitter

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Google Trends 

After an analysis of the Google Trends with respect to the first volunteer in the UK coronavirus vaccine trial died rumour, one can see that people have been hugely interested to know about the same. The maximum number of searches have been done on April 26, 2020. 

Image courtesy: Google Trends 

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Republic World did a fact check 

• Republic World did a fact check on whether the first volunteer in the UK coronavirus vaccine trial has died and the claims were found to be absolutely False. 
• The news was promptly rejected by Dr Elisa Granato herself, as her Twitter handle clearly mentions that she is indeed alive. She is a microbiologist residing at Oxford, England, who volunteered for the trial. 
• Elisa Granato clearly stated that she is alive and is completely well after her vaccine trial. She also requested people to stop spreading rumours about someone's death before confirmation. Take a look at the snip of her Twitter handle, which she made private after the hoax articles started spreading the fake news. 

• The UK coronavirus vaccine trial was started on April 23, 2020, and was conducted on two persons unlike what is mentioned in the hoax articles. Being a scientist herself, Dr Elisa Granato volunteered for the trial to help the medical community. 
• In the study, two volunteers were injected with the vaccine, which was prepared by the Oxford team in 3 months; however, they have recruited more than 800 people for the same study.
• The plan of the trial is to give COVID-19 vaccine to half of the study group whereas the rest will receive a control vaccine. They are conducting a blind clinical trial where the patients would not know about the treatment that they would be receiving. 
• The coronavirus vaccine on which the trial is being conducted at Oxford University was developed by a team from the university itself. The pre-clinical research was led by Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute.  If the trial goes well, they claim they're targeting a million doses by this September. Meanwhile, a team at Imperial College, London, is about to start its human trials in June 2020. 
• Regarding the hoax news, even the government of the UK advised the citizens to use the "SHARE checklist" function that would help to stop the spread of fake news. Here is a tweet by the authorities. 

Is there any rumour you want Republic World to do a fact check on? Do you have facts about a rumour? Share your pictures or videos with Republic World on contact@republicworld.com or comment on this story itself. 

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