One of the first volunteers in a British trial of a coronavirus vaccine has refuted a fake news report that she had died.
Elisa Granato was one of two people injected last week in Oxford, England, for the first human trial in Europe of a potential vaccine.
Rumours swept social media that she had died but Ms Granato and the British government debunked the news.
The link to the fake story was posted on some Facebook group pages that opposed vaccination.
“I’m very much alive, thank you,” the microbiologist said in a video posted by the BBC. “I’m having a cup of tea.”
....and here is Dr Elisa Granato in person. Alive and well pic.twitter.com/Csw1WqmBQa
— Fergus Walsh (@BBCFergusWalsh) April 26, 2020
The Department of Health said: “News circulating on social media that the first volunteer in a UK coronavirus vaccine trial has died is completely untrue.”
When Ms Granato began the trial, she said she wanted to help advance science.
“I’m a scientist, so of course I want to try and support science, the scientific process, whenever I can," she said.
"And since I don’t study viruses I felt a bit useless. So I felt like this was a very easy way for me to support the cause.
"That’s why I’m here and I’m excited."
More than 150,000 coronavirus infections and more than 20,000 deaths have been confirmed in the UK.
