U.K. Health Secretary Accused of 'Pretending to Cry' by Critics Over Man Getting COVID Vaccine

Critics of Britain's health secretary have accused him of pretending to cry on television after he watched footage of the first man in the U.K. to be given a COVID vaccine outside a clinical trial.

Matt Hancock appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday after 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine after U.K. government approval. She was followed by 81-year-old William Shakespeare, who gained attention for sharing his name with the famed English playwright and poet. Shakespeare was the first man and the second person to be given the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the U.K.

After hearing Shakespeare reacting to being vaccinated, Hancock was seen wiping his eyes, prompting presenter Piers Morgan to say: "You're quite emotional about that."

Hancock replied: "It's been such a tough year for so many people and there's William Shakespeare putting it simply for everybody that, you know, we can get on with our lives... 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 and so we've got to keep sticking by the rules."

He went on: "There's so much work gone into this, and I'm really really, it makes you proud to be British."

Some critics on Twitter poked fun at the health secretary, accusing him of faking his tears and appearing robotic.

Comedy writer James Felton wrote: "Matt Hancock pretending to cry based on diagrams he saw in a book. I know it involves a lot of eye rubbing, better do some eye rubbing even if my eyes do not produce the Human Liquids."

Tom Peck, a political sketch writer and columnist at The Independent wrote: "Matt Hancock pretending to cry is truly the moment of the year."

Henry Mance, the chief features writers at the Financial Times, tweeted: "Minutes after being vaccinated, William Shakespeare said he had given up writing plays, explaining that he could not take the chance that Matt Hancock would try to act in one of them."

James McManus, head of social media at BT Sport tweeted: "That clip of Matt Hancock pretending to cry is hilarious. Giggling and wiping your eyes isn't crying. That's a 'try again' on human emotion."

Podcast host Caspar Salmon wrote: "I've watched this a hundred million times, pausing and rewinding, over and over, and my professional conclusion is that, yes, in this very weird video that is hard to analyse as it contains no humans, and against all the visible evidence, Matt Hancock is pretending to cry here."

Newsweek has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care
for comment.