The government’s successful deal to secure 40 million shots of Pfizer’s vaccine is a political coup in more ways than one. Not only have ministers successfully backed what looks like the winning vaccine from a pool of 150, it has also pipped the EU to the post.

The EU has only just signed on the dotted line with Pfizer to secure 200 million shots of the vaccine, with the coordinator of the European parliament’s committee on public health Peter Liese saying that pharmaceuticals ‘need to respect EU law and that’s why it took a while’.