William Shakespeare has officially been vaccinated.
In maybe the most fun COVID-related news this year, the second person to get the new coronavirus vaccine in the U.K. was . . . William Shakespeare.
Second patient to get the COVID jab at University Hospital Coventry – would you believe it….William Shakespeare from Warwickshire pic.twitter.com/y0LzxgbJ9w
— Hugh Pym (@BBCHughPym) December 8, 2020
The 81-year-old Shakespeare was vaccinated at University Hospital Coventry, just 20 miles away from the other Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. And Bard enthusiasts everywhere jumped at the opportunity to pun on the situation:
Actually I heard the second person to get the vaccine was Christopher Marlowe but William Shakespeare took all the credit.
— Tiernan Douieb (@TiernanDouieb) December 8, 2020
“If you prick us, do we not bleed?!” https://t.co/2CBCO4mg3e
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) December 8, 2020
In light of William Shakespeare getting the vaccine, what was the last vaccine you got?
— Chris Hallas (@ChrisHallas) December 8, 2020
Some riffs were stranger than others:
Do you think they chose a man with the name William Shakespeare for the first vacc, because it’s an act?
They play with our minds.— Socrates’ Cat (@AeHcat) December 8, 2020
Regardless of whether it’s a psyop, I think Shakespeare deserves to be in the first tier of vaccinations. After all, he did write King Lear in quarantine. And more importantly, his family members can’t wait to hug him.
