Sheep-shaped syringe promotes vaccine push in Germany
Using drones and a local flock belonging to shepherd Steffen Schmidt and his wife, Etzold on Monday (January 3) used approximately 700 sheep and a few goats to form a giant 328-foot-long syringe (100 meters), seen in full from the air.
Germany has lower vaccination rates most other Western European nations, though many Germans are simply unsure if they should get a jab rather than vehemently opposed to vaccination.
Etzold, who works with the flock to run team-training exercises for companies, says sheep bring out the soft side of people and hopes this will help get his message across.
"Perhaps some people can be reached emotionally when logic and scientific reasoning does not work," he says.
According to the German Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI), 71.3% of Germany's population had received two doses of the COVID vaccine and 39.3% had received booster shots by Tuesday.
This places Germany among Western European countries with the lowest vaccination rates, data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows.
At the same time, only around 5-10% of Germans are vehemently opposed to vaccination and the rest are still undecided, according to RKI data.
