News reports and a number of social media posts claimed that the first person to participate in the Oxford University trial testing a new coronavirus vaccine had died.
A news website called News NT published a story suggesting Dr Elisa Granato had died two days after being injected with a vaccine for Covid-19.
Ferret Fact Service looked at this claim and found it to be False.
Evidence
The article, published by News NT on 25 April and reposted by a number of others. claimed microbiologist Dr Elisa Granato had died from “complications” following her participation in the drug trial, and four others were seriously ill.
This is false.
The information was attributed to a statement from “the researchers”, which does not appear to exist. The quote attributed to the researchers appears only in articles about the alleged death.
Oxford University confirmed the information in the article was incorrect and Dr Granato remains alive and well.
This was also corroborated by BBC journalist Fergus Walsh, who said he had spoken to her on Sunday morning. The article was first published on Saturday.
The website, News NT, has been found to post false stories before, including a claim that 21 million people had died from coronavirus in China. The author, James Alami, does not appear to have a digital presence outside this website.
The trial which Dr Granato took part in involves more than 800 people, half of which were injected with the Covid-19 vaccine and half with a control vaccine which is effective against meningitis, but not coronavirus. She took part in the trial on 23 April.
Ferret Fact Service verdict: False
This news article is not accurate. Oxford University has confirmed that the story was incorrect and Dr Granato remains alive and well.
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Ferret Fact Service (FFS) is a non-partisan fact checker, working to the International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’ code of principles. All the sources used in our checks are publicly available and the FFS fact-checking methodology can be viewed here. Want to suggest a fact check? Email us at factcheck@theferret.scot or join our Facebook group.
