Britain begins Pfizer vaccine shots, launching the West’s first mass coronavirus inoculation effort
By William Booth and Karla Adam
LONDON — Margaret Keenan, 90, was the first first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine jab outside of clinical trials as the first mass immunization campaign in the West begins.
The grandmother of four received the shot at University Hospital in Coventry, England just around 6.30 a.m. “I feel so privileged to be the first,” she said, adding that it meant she could “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.”
“My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it — if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too,” she said.
British health officials hailed the first injections as a turning point in the fight against a virus that has infected 67 million people around the globe, killing more than 1.54 million.