Celebrity mystic Uri Geller joined Israel's drive to vaccinate its elderly population against COVID-19 on Thursday, performing his trademark spoon-bending trick for medical staff as he got injected.
"I did it!" Geller, 75, said after the spoon broke in his hand while the needle went into the other arm, to applause from onlookers.
1 View gallery
Celebrity mystic Uri Geller holds a spoon as he performs his spoon-bending trick for medical staff while receiving a vaccination against coronavirus, in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel
(Photo: Reuters)
"Everybody who is over 60 should get it immediately," said Geller, who has a second home in Britain. "This is very, very important for the whole planet."
Israel launched its vaccination campaign on Dec. 19 and hopes to have administered first and booster shots to the most vulnerable 25% of its population by late January.
The TV entertainer has not always been so in line with the government's position on the virus.
He sparked outrage in March, when as the effects of the virus were beginning to be felt around the world he claimed that the pathogen had been was manufactured by China to provide Iran with biological warfare.
The virus was spread accidentally, he claimed, when a person in China working on the purported virus was inadvertently infected.
"Covid-19 (Corona)was created and manufactured by China’s MSS, while delivering the virus to Iran for bacteriological warfare reasons the virus accidentally was transmitted to a human," he wrote on Instagram at the time.
"This is the real story behind the pandemic. There is still controversy among American scientists whether the actual virus is derived from bats, snakes or created in a lab."