Clear movements! Pilot flies syringe over Germany to celebrate Covid vaccine launch across Europe
- Samy Kramer said he hopes the stunt will be a fun way to raise awareness
- The flight took off on Wednesday over the German city of Friedrichscafen
- Germany began vaccinating vulnerable residents on Saturday, with most other EU countries following on Sunday
A pilot drew the image of a syringe in the sky above Germany to celebrate the launch of coronavirus vaccination campaigns across Europe.
Samy Kramer said he hoped the stunt would be “a fun and unconventional way to raise awareness.”
Most European Union countries began inoculating vulnerable people on Sunday, while Hungary, Slovakia and Germany started a day earlier.
Kramer flew into the sky on a single-plane Diamond DA20 on Wednesday.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the small plane following the image of a syringe over Friedrichshafen, a German city 126 km (78 miles) from Stuttgart.
“It was to establish a kind of reminder to people and raise awareness that the vaccine will be available,” Kramer told Reuters.
A pilot drew the image of a syringe in the sky above Germany to celebrate the launch of coronavirus vaccination campaigns across Europe. Pictured: The syringe-shaped flight path seen on FlightRadar24.com
Pilot Samy Kramer is pictured in the cockpit while flying over Friedrichshafen, a German city 126 km (78 miles) from Stuttgart
Kramer flew into the sky on Wednesday in a single-plane Diamond DA20, white and blue, pictured
Kramer’s flight came days before Germany and other European countries began vaccinating vulnerable residents against the coronavirus.
The campaign was to be launched on Sunday, but Germany began vaccinating residents at a nursing home in Halberstadt, on the Harz Hill area, on Saturday.
“Every day we wait is too big in a day,” said Tobias Krueger, the nursing home operator.
The first person to be immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla, the dpa news agency reported.
Krueger said 40 of the 59 residents of the house want to be vaccinated along with 10 of about 40 workers.
Karen Sievers, 84 (left), is inoculated with Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine by Dr. Dirk Heinrich at a nursing home in Hamburg on Sunday
Man receives vaccine on Sunday at a nursing home in Bad Windsheim, Germany, as part of European launch
He was among those immunized, but added: “I understand the worries.”
Mass vaccination across the European Union, which is home to almost 450 million people, would be a crucial step towards ending a pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide, affected economies and destroyed businesses and jobs.
The launch gives hope to some of the most affected countries in the world. At least 16 million cases of coronavirus have been reported across the EU, with more than 360,000 deaths.
This is because cases of the new variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK have been reported in France, Spain and Sweden.