Politics this week

The European Union outlined a mechanism to stop exports of covid-19 vaccine components to countries that do not export to the EU, or already have higher vaccination rates. Underlining the disarray in the EU’s inoculation programme, Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, threatened to try to stop the bloc from buying an extra 100m doses of Pfizer’s jab if his country did not get a bigger share. He has begun talks with Russia to buy vaccine. Britain, meanwhile, said a domestic factory would produce the new Novavax vaccine, which will reduce the country’s reliance on overseas production.

Despite surging infections Germany recommended that the AstraZeneca jab should be used mostly for the over-60s and limited among younger groups, because of concerns about blood-clotting. Angela Merkel said the country’s inoculation campaign “rests on the principle of trust”. The European Medicines Agency and the WHO continue to recommend the vaccine.