ANGELA Merkel is facing a growing backlash over Britain getting the Covid-19 vaccine before Germany.
The German leader has been criticised for sticking to a common EU approach instead of fast-tracking approval for the jab like the UK.
Experts say if Berlin had rolled out the shot at the same time as Britain it could have saved up to 15,000 extra lives.
And it comes as it was revealed French President Emmanuel Macron has Covid-19 — and may have infected other EU leaders.
He tested positive after developing symptoms just days after a top-level summit, with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez now also self-isolating.
The jab controversy is awkward for Mrs Merkel because the Pfizer vaccine was developed by her own country’s scientists.
Other EU leaders are also feeling the heat, with a furious row erupting between them over why it is taking the bloc so long.
Britain has given the vaccine to 137,000 people in the first week since granting emergency approval.
They included the first German to receive the dose, which has not gone down well in Berlin.
It is now being rolled out across the world, including in the US, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel.
But EU countries have agreed to wait until the European Medicines Agency gives it authorisation.
Its decision has been brought forward to Monday after Mrs Merkel “read the riot act” over the embarrassing delay at a fiery Brussels summit.
And she is now under immense pressure from the country’s media, including Bild, Germany’s biggest paper.
It asked why “we can only watch as a vaccine developed by Germans is deployed elsewhere”.
