Vaccination plans across the European Union are unravelling as Brussels begins negotiations to acquire the latest jab to be backed by promising clinical trial results.
The bloc’s failure to secure an advance order from Novavax, which appears to prevent 89 per cent of infections, has become emblematic of the sense of disarray in national capitals.
Glitches in production of two vaccines and a shortfall in deliveries from Astrazeneca have prompted a crisis in some areas, with the regions around Paris and Madrid temporarily forced to stop giving first doses, and moving Jens Spahn, the German health minister, to declare: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in and with the greatest crisis since the Second World War.”
Germany has warned it is facing shortages for
