Germans Rush To Get Jabbed After Vaccination Centre Gives Out Free Sausages
Germany has given a shot in the arm to its attempts to get the population vaccinated by giving out free sausages – which has led to a rush of new registrations.
According to Germany’s bestselling newspaper Bild, the offer of free sausages branded the “bratwurst vaccination” led to a stampede of people rushing to the local vaccination centres to get the jab.
From 6 AM in the morning the first customers eager to get the free sausage were already queueing up and hundreds more were to follow when it started last Friday.
The success of the project locally even prompted the country’s Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is also the finance minister, to help promote it, writing yesterday (SUN) on Twitter: “We must get more vaccinations to the people and encourage as many men and women as possible to get themselves jabbed.”
He then added the hashtag #Bratwurst which is one of the most popular German sausages. It is a typical German sausage made from pork and documentary evidence shows it dates back to 1313 with each region of the country having their own version of the popular sausage. It is also sold in neighbouring Austria and Switzerland and even in the United States – where it’s shortened to being called a “brat”.
Scholz then posted a picture of himself with a bratwurst, without ketchup or mustard but between two slices of bread.
The sausage campaign comes as it was revealed that 52 percent of the Germans have had both jabs, and that figure rises to 61.6 percent who have had at least one jab. But it’s going increasingly slowly, and new methods are being sought to encourage the rest to also be vaccinated.
The free sausages led to a massive increase in the number of visitors in Sonneberg in South Thuringia with the local Doctors Association (KV) spokesman Joerg Mertz saying they had 250 people turn up by Friday afternoon who once they had been jabbed in the arm were given the free sausage to take away with them.
By the end of the day they estimated it was close to the 500 mark.
Normally they would not expect to see more than 140 for the whole day.
