Germany’s biggest-selling newspaper has praised Britain’s vaccine success and Boris Johnson’s plans to lift the lockdown, with a front-page headline saying: ‘Dear Brits, we envy you!’.
The article in Bild said the UK’s ‘successful’ vaccine programme had allowed the PM to promise a brighter future while Germany is ‘stuck in lockdown’ and Angela Merkel’s government is languishing behind in handing out vaccine doses.
The German gloom marks a stark turnaround from earlier months of the pandemic when Merkel was widely praised for her handling of the crisis, Johnson heavily criticised and Germany kept its death toll significantly below Britain’s.
Now, Merkel is warning of a looming ‘third wave’ as Covid-19 infections start to increase again with only four per cent of the public vaccinated – while Britons are already counting down the days to freedom on June 21.
Bild’s front page today includes the headline: ‘Dear Brits, we envy you!’, superimposed on a Union Jack and accompanied by the caption: ‘The English have announced their return to normality on June 21… and here there’s no hope’
Optimism: Boris Johnson at a Downing Street press conference on Monday after setting out plans to end the lockdown entirely by June 21
Gloom: German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned of a looming ‘third wave’, with the pace of vaccinations too slow to protect a large share of the population
Bild’s front-page headline has the words ‘we envy you’, partly in English, superimposed over the Union Jack – with a caption saying that ‘the English have announced their return to normality on June 21… and here there’s no hope’.
The article describes Britons as ‘just plain happy’, adding that they had ‘reacted with overwhelming euphoria’ to the PM’s announcement on Monday.
‘It means: Normal life is coming back! FREEDOM!,’ the article published in Wednesday’s paper says.
‘That’s made possible by the successful vaccination campaign,’ it says, noting that more than 17.7million people have received a jab in the UK compared to 3.4million in larger Germany.
The article goes on: ‘While the Brits are already planning their summer holidays, Germany is stuck in lockdown.
‘That’s because chancellor Angela Merkel, who as recently as Monday was holding out the prospect of loosening lockdown, sounded the alarm again yesterday.’
Merkel told party colleagues on Tuesday that ‘we are now in the third wave’, warning that any easing of lockdown after March 7 could only take place gradually.
The chancellor, a trained scientist, has long been cautious about a hasty exit from lockdown – and Germany’s jab programme is not moving fast enough to protect a large share of the population at this stage.
Britain is far outpacing Germany and other EU countries in handing out vaccines to guard against a resurgence of Covid-19
A two-month ‘hard lockdown’ has brought Germany’s infection rate down, but progress has now stalled with cases on the rise again in the last week
The death rate has fallen from its January peak but is still higher than during the first wave, when Germany was celebrated for keeping deaths low
A second Bild article describes Johnson’s plans as a ‘Corona-Brexit’, and asks: ‘When will we catch up to the Brits?’.
‘The deficit is growing: at the moment the Brits are vaccinating nearly three times as many people per day,’ it says.
‘Herd immunity on the island [meaning Britain] certainly appears in sight. And that’s why the Brits want to open up.’
While Merkel has come under fire for letting Brussels take the lead in the vaccine race, the EU’s supply problems have been made worse by many Germans’ reluctance to take the AstraZeneca vaccine after European leaders voiced doubts about the jab.
Germany was among the countries which refused to let over-65s take the jab because of limited trial data, in contrast to Britain where real-world data this week showed the jab cutting hospitalisations in Scotland by 94 per cent.
Emmanuel Macron added fuel to the fire in France by casting doubt on the jab’s effectiveness and claiming that Britain had taken a risk by approving it so quickly.
Merkel’s office is now pleading with Germans to take the AstraZeneca shot after only 187,000 of the jabs were administered out of the first 1.5million delivered.
‘The vaccine from AstraZeneca is both safe and highly effective,’ Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. ‘The vaccine can save lives.’
EU chief Ursula von on der Leyen has now joined in that effort, saying that she herself would take the vaccine despite her earlier feud with the company.
‘I would take the AstraZeneca vaccine without a second thought, just like Moderna’s and BioNTech/Pfizer’s products,’ von der Leyen told the Augsburger Allgemeine.
The EU’s AstraZeneca problems are set to continue into the spring, with as many as 90million doses expected to be missing from shipments in the second quarter of 2021.
The roadmap out of lockdown: Boris Johnson’s plans would allow for all restrictions to be lifted by June and significant freedoms to return before then
An EU official involved in talks with the firm says the company has warned that it may deliver only half of its promised 180million doses from April to June.
It comes after Brussels reacted with fury last month when AstraZeneca said it would cut deliveries to the bloc because of delays at a Belgian factory.
After AstraZeneca warned of shortfalls but continued to supply Britain in full, the EU published its contract with the firm and claimed to have cast-iron commitments.
Brussels also imposed export controls on jab shipments leaving the bloc, but was forced into retreat after initially saying they would apply to Northern Ireland.
But AstraZeneca’s CEO blamed the delays on the fact that the EU had not signed a contract until three months after Britain had tied up a deal last year.
AstraZeneca is not exporting vaccines made in the UK, in line with its separate contract with the British government.
But AstraZeneca has told the EU it could provide more doses from its global supply chain, including from India and the United States, an EU official said last week.
Also under fire is Merkel’s health minister Jens Spahn, who has been criticised over the vaccine fiasco and suffered further humiliation this week when his plan to roll out rapid testing from March 1 was torpedoed by Merkel’s office.
The rapid-testing plan will now merely be discussed at talks between Merkel and state premiers on March 3, the chancellor’s spokesman said.
German soldiers prepare AstraZeneca vaccines at a former Berlin airport earlier this month, amid widespread reluctance to take the jab despite its proven effectiveness
As recently as last week, Spahn had promised that the publicly-funded tests would be available from March 1 in pharmacies and local testing centres.
‘These testing options can contribute to a safe everyday life, especially in schools and daycare centres,’ Spahn had said.
The government’s popularity has also been hit by the prolonged lockdown which has turned Germany’s success of last spring into a much bleaker picture this winter.
After seeing fewer than 10,000 deaths during the first wave, Germany’s death toll is now above 68,000 and a weeks-long decline in cases has now come to a halt.
The last seven days have seen 52,419 new cases, up from 50,403 the week before, and the closely-watched R rate has been as high as 1.25.
The stagnation means that the infection rate per 100,000 people, currently 59.3, is hovering agonisingly above the level of 50 identified as a benchmark for re-opening.
Germany’s success in the first wave means its total death rate is still well below Britain’s, with 68,740 deaths compared to the UK’s 121,305.
EU is set to receive 90 MILLION fewer AstraZeneca jabs than expected in latest blow to their vaccine drive – as Ursula von der Leyen admits she would take the jab despite Europe’s scaremongering
Europe’s vaccine chaos is set to continue into the spring with as many as 90million doses missing from AstraZeneca shipments in the second quarter of 2021.
An EU official involved in talks with the firm says AstraZeneca has warned that it may deliver only half of its promised 180million doses from April to June.
It comes after Brussels reacted with fury last month when AstraZeneca said it would cut deliveries to the bloc because of delays at a Belgian factory.
The new shortage could hamper the EU’s ability to meet its target of vaccinating 70 per cent of adults by summer – with Britain promising to offer one dose to 100 per cent by July 31.
EU leaders have also made matters worse by raising doubts about the AstraZeneca jab despite its proven effectiveness – with Germany now pleading with its citizens to take the jab after the scaremongering led to low uptake.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, 62, has also sought to quell doubts by saying that she herself would take the AstraZeneca jab.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, pictured, says she would take the AstraZeneca vaccine despite feuding with the firm over supplies to the bloc
‘I would take the AstraZeneca vaccine without a second thought, just like Moderna’s and BioNTech/Pfizer’s products,’ von der Leyen told the Augsburger Allgemeine.
But she also continued to voice doubts about the UK’s strategy of delaying second doses – a move approved by Britain’s chief medical officers – as she claimed that the EU was ‘catching up’ in the vaccine race.
The EU supply shortage is seen as one of the main reasons for a widely-criticised vaccine roll-out which is lagging far behind that in Britain.
While the UK has handed out 27.0 doses per 100 people, the EU is lagging behind on 6.2 and has not significantly sped up its progress in recent weeks.
Von der Leyen defended her policies by pointing out that the EU had handed out 27milion doses in total compared to 17million in Britain – but the bloc of 27 countries has a population more than six times larger.
She also noted that Italy had given double-doses to more people than Britain, but it has handed out far fewer doses overall.
Catching up to Britain will be made even harder if AstraZeneca shortfalls continue into the early summer, as an EU official told Reuters last night.
AstraZeneca is producing vaccines at two plants in the UK, one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands, but is not exporting its British-made jabs under its contract with UK ministers – although it has offered the EU doses made in India and the US.
This woman received the AstraZeneca vaccine in a hospital in Madrid on Tuesday – but elsewhere there has been low uptake after European scaremongering about the product
The official said AstraZeneca planned to deliver about 40million doses in the first quarter, less than half the 90million shots it was supposed to supply.
It was also due to deliver 30 million doses in the last quarter of 2020 but did not supply any shots last year as its vaccine had yet to be approved by the EU.
All told, AstraZeneca’s total supply to the EU could be about 130 million doses by the end of June, well below the 300 million it committed to deliver to the bloc by then.
AstraZeneca did not deny the EU official’s claims, but said it was striving to increase productivity in order to meet its 180million target.
‘We are hopeful that we will be able to bring our deliveries closer in line with the advance purchase agreement,’ an AstraZeneca spokesman said.
Later in the day, the firm added that its ‘most recent Q2 forecast… aims to deliver in line with its contract with the European Commission’.
‘At this stage AstraZeneca is working to increase productivity in its EU supply chain and to continue to make use of its global capability in order to achieve delivery of 180 million doses to the EU in the second quarter,’ it said.
A European Commission spokesman declined to comment on confidential talks but said the EU should have enough shots even if the AstraZeneca targets are not met.
An EU regulator approved the AstraZeneca jab in late January but the ruling was overshadowed by a furious political row over the delayed shipments.
After AstraZeneca warned of shortfalls but continued to supply Britain in full, the EU published its contract with the firm and claimed to have cast-iron commitments.
Brussels also imposed export controls on jab shipments leaving the bloc, but was forced into retreat after initially saying they would apply to Northern Ireland.
But AstraZeneca’s CEO blamed the delays on the fact that the EU had not signed a contract until three months after Britain had tied up a deal last year.
AstraZeneca is not exporting vaccines made in the UK, in line with its separate contract with the British government.
But AstraZeneca has told the EU it could provide more doses from its global supply chain, including from India and the United States, an EU official said last week.
The EU published its 42-page contract with AstraZeneca, pictured, at the height of a bitter row over shipments last month
AstraZeneca is now forecast to make up its shortfalls by the end of September, according to a German health ministry document.
German officials expect to receive 34million doses in the third quarter, taking the country to its full entitlement of 56million out of the EU’s 300million doses.
Despite its approval by EU regulators, the AstraZeneca vaccine has met with resistance in some countries – further slowing the European roll-out.
Some countries including France and Germany have refused to approve it for over-65s because of limited trial data, despite the firm’s assurances that it is effective.
French president Emmanuel Macron added fuel to the fire by questioning the jab’s effectiveness and claiming Britain had taken a risk by authorising it so soon.
The effect of such scaremongering is that only 187,000 AstraZeneca shots have been administered in Germany out of 1.5million due to have been delivered by last week.
German leaders have now launched a public relations push to reassure the public that the shot developed at Oxford University is effective.
‘The vaccine from AstraZeneca is both safe and highly effective,’ Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. ‘The vaccine can save lives.’
Von der Leyen has now joined in that effort, saying that she herself would take the vaccine despite her earlier feud with the company.