A journalist in England was mistakenly offered the vaccine COVID-19 shortly after an administrative error saw his height listed in his medical records as just 6.2 centimeters.
Liam Thorp, the six-foot-tall political editor at Liverpool Echo, was incorrectly considered to have a body mass index of 28,000 and was therefore listed as vulnerable.
Thorp, 32 and without any underlying health problems, recalled the amusing confusion on a viral topic on Twitter and in a column published on Wednesday. He also revealed how he now refused the dose.
Thorp said he was “really surprised” to receive the coronavirus vaccine, given the way it is being implemented for people over 65 in the UK.
He made an appointment, having “the impression that when you were offered a vaccine, you should always accept it”, but then he felt growing unease about his apparent leap.
Thorp asked his surgery if there had been an error, he said, before receiving “one of the most bizarre calls in my life”.
According to the health team, its height was entered into the system as 6.2 centimeters instead of 1.80 meters, about 188 centimeters.
“The man’s nervous tone burst into laughter when I joked about gaining weight and losing a significant amount of height during the block,” recalled Thorp. “If I had been less stunned, I would have asked why no one was more concerned that a man of such remarkable dimensions was sliding across southern Liverpool.”
Read the full column here.
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