Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine begins UK rollout with 90-year-old grandma
The United Kingdom began nationwide distribution of Pfizer/BioNTech’s highly anticipated COVID-19 vaccine with this woman.
The claim: The first vaccine recipients in the UK are crisis actors
This week, Margaret Keenan — a grandmother who turns 91 next week — became the first recipient of the coronavirus vaccine in the United Kingdom.
She received the shot, produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, on Dec. 8 at University Hospital Coventry and said it was “the best early birthday present,” per USA TODAY.
But some skeptics have taken to the internet with allegations that Keenan is not who she claims — and is actually a crisis actor.
An analysis by USA TODAY showed that in just 24 hours, over 475,000 Twitter users were potentially exposed to a single tweet that levied the allegation.
The proof they cite ranges from photos of similar-looking women to the variant dates on news articles that feature photos of vaccine recipients like Keenan.
Joe Ward, for example, posted a photo of Keenan receiving the vaccine, a photo of another woman falling to the ground, and a screenshot of a profile on the casting website StarNow.
“Liz Scott AKA Margaret Keenan. Crisis Actor. Whoops…,” he wrote on Facebook.
Mindy Robinson, meanwhile, posted screenshots of two news articles featuring photos of Keenan. The first — a story about Keenan from BBC — was dated Dec. 8. The second was a story about the coronavirus death tally, dated Oct. 22.
“Excuse me, but how is the exact same person who’s the ‘first to get vaccinated’ today…also in a CNN photo wearing the exact same clothes, in the exact same chair, and getting a shot back in October?” she wrote on Twitter.
Erin Marie Olszewski also posted screenshots of articles with different dates. Rather than Keenan, the articles include photos of William Shakespeare, 81, the second recipient of the shot.
The first — a story about Shakespeare, from BBC — was dated Dec. 8. The second was the same story on CNN about the coronavirus death tally, dated Oct. 22.
“Crisis actors,” she wrote on Facebook. She also posted a meme that compared photos of Shakespeare and Keenan as they received the shot, administered by the same nurse.
“Busy nurse today working in Coventry and Stratford-upon-Avon at the same time,” the meme reads, along with a sarcastic emoji.
Ward and Robinson have not responded to requests from USA TODAY for comment.
Olszewski told USA TODAY that her post “didn’t claim that it was for sure.”
Rather, she posted it as an example of what she sees to be a pattern of media that “fakes the news” on COVID-19.
“Even if this particular one isn’t true, it has happened in the past, and that cannot be disputed,” Olszewski said.
No credible evidence that vaccine recipients were crisis actors
There is no credible evidence to suggest that Keenan is a crisis actor.
In reality, the now-retired grandmother is a former jewelry shop assistant, per a press release from the National Health Service.
She is clearly depicted in photos and videos from Reuters and the NHS England — and looks different from both of the women in the other photos posted by Ward.
Take the photo of a woman falling to the ground.
The image — snapped by Justin Tallis, a staff photographer for the AFP — came from an anti-lockdown, anti-vaccination demonstration in London on Sept. 26.
The woman in the photo hardly resembles Keenan, apart from her red hair. She appears to be much younger and less frail.
The same is true of Liz Scott, the woman in the profile on the casting website Star Now.
On her profile, Scott lists her hair and eye color as brown. In contrast, Keenan has red hair and blue eyes. Scott also lists no acting experience, including crisis acting.
Asked about the crisis-actors conspiracy theory, a journalist at The Sun told Lead Stories that Keenan is “100 percent a real person.”
“She and her family have spoken to various media outlets and there are loads of pics of her out there if you Google,” he wrote in an email. “Journalists have also been to her home. The whole theory is … crazy.”
What about the articles that feature photos of Keenan and Shakespeare, but are dated prior to Dec. 8?
The story in question, published on CNN.com on Oct. 22, covered a report on the coronavirus death tally. The article doesn’t actually include any images of Keenan or Shakespeare.
But directly below the headline, the webpage displays a video reel with a recent handful of videos, including a video on the recent vaccinations that shows footage of Keenan and Shakespeare.
Mindy Robinson herself later noted this, and tweeted: “So, benefit of the doubt they just use new stories in their banners on old articles?”
The meme about the nurse who administered the shots is also wrong.
It claims that the nurse who administered the shots was working in “Coventry and Stratford-upon-Avon at the same time.” She wasn’t — but she didn’t have to be.
Shakespeare received the shot at University Hospital Coventry, just like Keenan. Both received the vaccine from nurse May Parsons, per the New York Times.
(It was a different William Shakespeare, the 16th-century playwright, who hailed from the town of Stratford-upon-Avon.)
Fact checkers from Reuters and Politifact have also debunked claims that Keenan is a crisis actor.
A few other claims about Keenan have appeared online, too.
Some have claimed that Keenan is actually dead based on an obituary from 2008. But the subject of the online memorial is “clearly a completely different person,” according to Vice News.
Others have baselessly asserted that a gesture she made links her to the Freemasons or the Illuminati. There’s no proof of a connection to either.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, the claim that the first vaccine recipients in the U.K. are crisis actors is FALSE. There is no evidence that Margaret Keenan, a grandmother who will turn 91 next week, is a crisis actor. Photos used as proof depict different-looking women. A story on CNN in October does not actually show Keenan or William Shakespeare, who also received the vaccine; it just includes a video of them in a reel above the story. And they both received their shots in Coventry.
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
