Good Morning Britain viewers were left cringing on their sofas as they watched Matt Hancock break down in tears after the first coronavirus vaccinations were given out.
The Health Secretary started sobbing after a 90-year-old grandmother from Coventry and a Warwickshire pensioner called William Shakespeare became the first people in the world to get an approved coronavirus vaccine as the country took a gigantic step towards ending the pandemic on ‘V-Day’.
But viewers dubbed his appearance a ‘truly shameful performance’ and accused him of fake crying with ‘crocodile tears’.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘And the Oscar for fake crying goes to Matt Hancock. The scene where he wiped away a tear won it for him I think.’
While another said: ‘Truly shameful performance in every way for Matt Hancock.’
And another wrote: ‘Crocodile tears, cannot stand this man. If he told me the world was round, I’d immediately think it was flat.’
Charlotte D said: ‘Matt Hancock faking a cry on GMB. A sob that turns into a smirk that turns into a chuckle. You’re fooling no one!’
The moment Margaret Keenan, 90, became the first patient in the United Kingdom to receive the Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine at University Hospital, Coventry, administered by nurse May Parsons, at the start of the largest ever immunisation programme in the UK’s history
Good Morning Britain viewers were left cringing on their sofas as they watched Matt Hancock break down in tears after the first coronavirus vaccinations were given out
It is not the first time Mr Hancock has left the public feeling second-hand embarrassment.
In 2018 he posted footage of him trying parkour, which prompted one Twitter user this morning to write: ‘This is worse than the time he tried to do parkour.’
The NHS has this morning started the biggest vaccination drive in British history at 50 hospital sites where the UK’s new weapon in the war on Covid-19 is being rolled out to the over-80s, the vulnerable and frontline hospital and care home staff.
Maggie gave a thumbs up after the jab and said she was looking forward to seeing friends and family after being alone for most of 2020. Matt Hancock became tearful on GMB seeing her get vaccinated and said it made him ‘proud to be British’
Up to 5,000 people are expected to be inoculated today – around 100 people in each centre – with 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine already in the country.
Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, was the first person in the world to receive the jab since it was approved by the UK’s regulator – calling it ‘the best early birthday present I could wish for’ after self-isolating alone since March.
Incredibly the next to get the jab was 81-year-old William Shakespeare from near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, who appeared so relaxed many joked that to him, being the second person in the world to be vaccinated was ‘much ado about nothing’.
Viewers dubbed his appearance a ‘truly shameful performance’ and accused him of fake crying with ‘crocodile tears’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was emotional as he watched Mrs Keenan getting the jab this morning after a grim 2020, and cried on Good Morning Britain as Mr Shakespeare hailed the ‘groundbreaking’ jab that will ‘start changing our lives’.
Mr Hancock wiped away tears as he told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: ‘It’s been such a tough year for so many people and there’s William Shakespeare putting it simply for everybody that we can get on with our lives’.
But in a gloomy warning for Britain he added: ‘There’s still a few months to go, I’ve still got this worry that we can’t blow it now Piers, we’ve still got to get the vaccine to millions of people so we’ve got to keep sticking to the rules, there’s so much work gone into this – it makes me proud to be British’.
Boris Johnson, who watched people getting vaccinated at Guy’s Hospital this morning, said: ‘It’s a shot in the arm for the entire nation, but we can’t afford to relax now’.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘And the Oscar for fake crying goes to Matt Hancock. The scene where he wiped away a tear won it for him I think’
At 6.30am, wearing a bright blue ‘Merry Christmas’ T-shirt, Mrs Keenan, known as ‘Maggie’ to friends and family, could be seen smiling under her mask as the nurse May Parsons at University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire injected her with the life-saving medicine.
Mrs Keenan, a former jewellery shop assistant who only retired four years ago, has a daughter, a son and four grandchildren.
She said: ‘I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19, it’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can 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.
‘I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too.’
As today marks the start of the ‘biggest vaccine campaign in the UK’s history’:
- Thousands of people across the country today became the first in the world to get an approved Covid-19 vaccination;
- Kate Bingham, head of UK vaccine task force, predicts beginning of the end for lockdown and says: ‘My gut feeling is we will all be going on summer holidays’;
- Matt Hancock warns London is on the verge of being plunged into TIER 3 as Covid cases rise and data reveals daily infections are now higher than BEFORE blanket lockdown;
- Britain has received 800,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine so far – that’s enough for 400,000 people;
- Four million more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are set to arrive in the UK before the end of the December;
- Britain recorded 189 Covid-19 deaths yesterday and 14,178 new cases – a rise of 19.4% compared to last Monday;
Charlotte D said: ‘Matt Hancock faking a cry on GMB. A sob that turns into a smirk that turns into a chuckle. You’re fooling no one!’
In a world first move, that NHS chiefs hope will mark the ‘first step on the road back to normality’, thousands of Britons will today roll up their sleeves and take a shot of the new Pfizer jab, which is 95 per cent effective.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people should not be afraid of getting vaccinated, and that people objecting to having the jab are ‘totally wrong’.
Speaking at the vaccination centre at Guy’s Hospital in London on Tuesday, he said: ‘To all those who are scared (of getting vaccinated) – don’t be. You have seen Lyn (Wheeler) take it, you have seen people take the vaccine this morning in large numbers.
‘There’s nothing to be nervous about.’
He added: ‘What I would say is that there are those obviously who feel that a vaccine is something they object to politically or for ideological reasons.
‘I think they are totally wrong. It’s safe, it’s the right thing to do, it’s good for you and it’s good for the whole country.
‘It’s going to take a while.
‘I urge people to contain their impatience.’