Angela Merkel is under intense pressure over Germany s slow vaccine rollout (Image: GETTY)
Mr Erb suggested the German government should seize all vaccines made in Germany to avoid legal responsibility.
He commented: “The federal government would have the de facto possibility of avoiding these additional deaths by securing the vaccine made in Germany for Germany and Europe by banning exports to third countries.”
However seizing vaccines, including those ordered by developing countries, would almost certainly spark international outrage.
Germany has also announced the AstraZeneca vaccine will only be given to those aged less than 65.
Britain has vaccinated more people than any other country in Europe (Image: EXPRESS)
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German biotech company CureVac has joined the global effort to boost coronavirus vaccine supplies by signing up pharmaceuticals giant Bayer and contract drugmaker Rentschler to help to produce its experimental COVID-19 jab.
Chief executive officer Franz-Werner Haas said on Monday his company was aiming to produce several hundred million doses of its vaccine by the end of the year.
Due to the cooperation with Bayer, it expects to be able to make between 600 million and one billion doses in 2022, Haas added.
CureVac is a pioneer in the so-called messenger RNA approach for developing vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for infectious diseases.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has said he is open to the use of coronavirus vaccines from Russia or China in Germany, as a debate over the availability of vaccines rages in Europe. If a vaccine is safe and effective, no matter in which country it was produced, then it can of course help in beating the pandemic, Spahn told the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The vaccine would have to go through the normal authorization process.
Russia announced on Friday that it would be able to supply the EU with 100 million doses of the vaccine Sputnik V in the second quarter, enough for 50 million people.