Outbreak’s worldly concerns

Here is how coronavirus is affecting people around the world:

FRANCE

French pharmaceutical group Sanofi walked back its pledge to grant the US first access to its COVID-19 vaccine — after an outcry from the French government.

“I am going to be extremely clear: There will be no particular advance for any country,” Serge Weinberg, chairman of the Sanofi board, told France 2 TV.

Sanofi initially said it would reserve first shipments of its vaccine for the United States — which has already funded $30 million in research for the company through its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

But President Emmanuel Macron said any vaccine should be considered “a global public good, which is not submitted to market forces.”

GREAT BRITAIN

London could be coronavirusfree as early as June, a new analysis suggests — though some researchers are skeptical.

The reproduction value in the capital city — a figure which represents how many people one infected person can transmit the virus to — has fallen to 0.4, according to a Cambridge University and Public Health England study cited by Metro UK.

About 1.8 million people in London — approximately 20 percent of the population — have already gotten the coronavirus, and the higher immunity could make it harder for the contagion to spread.

GERMANY

A cafe that makes customers wear gigantic hats fashioned from multicolored swim noodles — to ensure they stay socially-distanced — is dividing the drinking public of Germany.

“We are lost!!!” one critic posted on Facebook photos of swim-toy-topped patrons at the Cafe & Konditorei Rothe in Schwerin.

“Good sheep,” another person snarked of the bizarre hat trick.

Still, other posters urged the critics to have a sense of humor.

“How awesome is this, please?” wrote Franziska Solle.