"You might feel very happy on your little island when you are all vaccinated, but your island might feel very small when you cannot leave it because your neighbors are not vaccinated," one senior diplomat told CNN.
"The perception that the UK is rolling out so fast while the EU is stumbling from crisis to crisis is very unhelpful," says Richmond. "While no one believes a member state is going to leave over the EU's handling of the pandemic or that it will fall apart, the post-Brexit reality is that all crises are automatically linked to the fact the UK has created a framework for leaving."