German Health Minister Jens Spahn is clearly feeling the pressure as cases soar and Germany descends into even tighter lockdown, closing all non-essential businesses and even schools until at least January. Spahn took to Twitter yesterday to beg the EU to approve the vaccine, arguing that the EU’s delay is undermining “the trust of the citizens in the ability of the European Union to act” and “Every day that we start vaccinating earlier will reduce suffering”. Though, of course, Brexit had no effect on the UK’s early approval…

Experts like Paul Welfens of the University of Wuppertal are now arguing that Germany’s delays cost more than 20,000 lives. Meanwhile, the UK has been vaccinating for a week and the US starts today. Spahn reportedly confessed yesterday at a Corona summit with the German Chancellor over the weekend that “Germany would have been significantly faster in a single, national approval process.”

The best selling European newspaper Bild came out with a scorching lead editorial yesterday slamming the German Government for “political failure” over Coronavirus. The paper writes that whilst Germany came through the early part of this pandemic relatively unscathed, that is now in the past and the country is struggling.

“we are currently only watching how other countries start vaccinating because the EU is lagging behind with approval due to reasons of deadlines. If every day counts, that is unreasonable. The first German was vaccinated yesterday – in England …“