A bakery in Germany went viral in early January 2021 for making unique cakes — cakes shaped and decorated like syringes in honor of newly approved COVID-19 vaccines.
The owner of the Berlin-based bakery, Schuerner’s Baking Paradise, at first worried the cakes would be "too macabre." But he changed his mind.
"First we were a bit skeptical whether it would be a bit too macabre,” Tim Kortuem told Reuters. "But then we did it after all. Because even for anti-vaxxers it’s funny. It is a vaccine without any side effects. And you can come back and get another one because it is so yummy."
In December 2020, a German pilot created a digital image via a flight tracker by flying in a syringe pattern.
The first COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer gained emergency approval for use in the U.S. and Europe in December 2020, and began rolling out for use. A vaccine developed by Moderna has since been approved, while vaccines developed by other pharmaceutical companies are in the pipeline.
COVID-19, which was initially detected in Wuhan, China, in the winter of 2019, has since killed 2 million people worldwide, including more than 375,000 Americans.