In muddle of Merkel exit, COVID's fourth wave catches Germany out

FILE PHOTO: People queue outside vaccination booths at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) drive-in vaccination centre at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany, November 23, 2021. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - For once, proverbially efficient Germany has dropped the ball.

Seemingly endless queues all over the country for coronavirus booster shots and even for first vaccines are evidence that it has been caught out by a fourth wave of COVID-19, having led the world in its initial response to the pandemic early last year.