Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

Europe’s slow vaccine approval is testing Germany’s patience

Angela Merkel (Photo: Getty)

The Bundestag can’t be an easy place to be a politician right now. At the start of the pandemic, Germany seemed to be steering a steadier course than other countries, who looked on in awe at the speed with which it launched its testing regime.

But as Britain, Canada and the USA begin vaccinations, Germany has been left tapping its feet. It is still waiting for the European Medicines Agency to approve the Pfizer vaccine, which it is set to do on 21 December – a state of affairs that is rapidly turning into a national and international embarrassment.

The German public have grown increasingly irritated at the delays. ‘It’s just beyond belief,’ the Bild newspaper wrote in an editorial. ‘The world is celebrating the BioNTech vaccine developed in Germany. Yet Britain, the US and Canada have started vaccinating while we are standing and gawping.

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