On Friday 23 January, AstraZeneca informed the European Commission there would be a serious shortfall in its delivery of 81 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for the first quarter.
A senior EU official, close to the contract negotiations, indicated member states could be getting as little as 25% of what had been ordered.
The rollout was already beset with problems. Pfizer/BioNTech had already signalled a shortfall in mid-January. The EU's bulk purchase of vaccines had been agreed by member states in June last year, but press coverage in Germany had been turning hostile since late December.
The knives were out for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Commission went into fight mode, wading into a highly public row with AstraZeneca,