Mr Kenyon, 91, had been called a “national treasure” after a charming interview with reporters outside a London hospital last month. It comes as the UK continues its coronavirus jab rollout with two vaccines available – its domestically-produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the US Pfizer/BioNTech jab.
After receiving his first coronavirus vaccine dose last month, Mr Kenyon was stopped by CNN’s Cyril Vanier outside Guy’s Hospital in London.
Asked about his experience and how he went about securing a vaccine booking, Mr Kenyon revealed he had phoned the hospital out of the blue and simply asked.
He told the reporter: “I rang up Guy’s Hospital, which I know very well as I’ve lived in London most of my grown-up life, and I said ‘What’s this thing you’re doing, the vaccination?’ and they said ‘Yes’.”
Mr Kenyon also remarked how he was late for the appointment because “I couldn’t damn well find anywhere to park my car”.
Asked how he felt about being among the first people in the world to have received the Pfizer vaccine, Mr Kenyon responded: “I don’t think I feel about it all, except that I hope I’m not going to have the bloody bug now.
“I don’t intend to have it because I’ve got granddaughters and I want to live a long time to enjoy their lives.”
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Speaking to the Guardian, Mr Kenyon joked: “I can start behaving badly now.
“I am, of course, being very frivolous. But it’s [a] new year, and I think we’ve got to cheer it up a bit.”
Mr Kenyon also remarked how the service at Guy’s Hospital had improved in the weeks between his first and second dose.
He claimed there was “one man there, with a pencil and some paper and writing down a few names” when he arrived for the vaccine in December.
However, he called the more recent dose “very different” and “very efficient”.
He even said the parking situation had improved as he was able to find a spot “absolutely outside the main building”.
In the UK, around 1.3 million people have now received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the BBC reported yesterday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the nation is aiming to increase the number of people getting the jab to 2 million every week.
The aim is to get all of Britain’s over-70s, as well as front-line health and care workers and the most clinically vulnerable, vaccine by the middle of next month.
This week, the UK began the rollout of its domestically-developed Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, upping the type of Covid-19 vaccines available in the country to two.
