display
The trucks with the suitcase-sized boxes are well guarded.
Three of them drive in a column, escorted by two black FBI SUVs.
Sensors inside the boxes record everything that could indicate problems: location, temperature, brightness, vibrations.
The exact routes of the trucks are secret.
After all, they are transporting BNT162b2 - the substance that all of America is currently wanting.
It is the vaccine of the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner Biontech.
The authorities approved the operation last week, and delivery is now beginning.
display
FedEx and UPS trucks and United Airlines cargo planes brought the vaccine to 145 distribution centers in all 50 states on Monday.
From there it was sent to clinics and old people's homes.
Nurse Sandra Lindsay is the first US patient to be vaccinated
Source: dpa
The first patient to receive a dose was a nurse in Queens - a New York neighborhood that was once considered the corona epicenter.
More than six million cans should be available by Wednesday.
The vaccine needs minus 70 degrees Celsius
The distribution of BNT162b2 is the largest vaccination campaign in US history.
"The technology and expertise that we need for this," says Susan Beardslee, logistics expert at the New York analysis firm ABI Research, "exceeds anything that our healthcare system has had to do before."
display
Some in America compare the project to the Allied landing in Normandy during World War II.
There is talk of a "Covid-D-Day".
The vaccine is set to turn the tide in a battle that killed 300,000 citizens and devastated the country's economy.
The vaccine that is now hoped for began its journey at a plant in Michigan.
This is where Pfizer made the first cans and filled them into glass vials.
195 bottles each were then packed into the suitcase-sized boxes, along with dry ice.
Because the vaccine only lasts in icy temperatures, minus 70 degrees Celsius are necessary.
Pfizer now operates its own dry ice production facility to meet the demand that suddenly arises.
Sought-after substance: At the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo production facility, containers with the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Biontech are prepared for shipment
Source: picture alliance / dpa / Pool AP
display
Each box in the truck contains vaccine for 975 people.
But sending the vaccine is not enough.
At the same time, millions of syringes have to be delivered.
Saline solutions are also needed to dilute the substance in the 195 glass vials prior to administration.
Workers at the California health company McKesson have been sending the equipment to the vaccination centers for weeks.
BNT162b2 may be America's hope - but without the hardware, the liquid is useless.
There is a lack of computing power
The distribution of the vaccine - the "Covid-D-Day" - poses many challenges.
Everything has to be in the right place at the right time: the vaccine, the boxes, the glass vials, the syringes, the saline solutions, the dry ice.
According to logistics expert Beardslee, cooling is a particular problem.
“There are not enough storage facilities,” she says, “that are designed for minus 70 degrees Celsius.” There will probably be space for the first cans, but later it could be difficult.
“It is also time-consuming,” says Beardslee, “to constantly measure the temperature across the entire supply chain.” The large number of sensors and the computing power required for this are not yet available in the USA.
Beardslee also warns of a shortage of truck drivers.
In fact, America's freight forwarders have struggled to find staff for years.
Last year the country lacked nearly 60,000 truckers.
And since the beginning of 2020, when Corona brought economic life to a standstill in large parts of the USA, many transport companies have gone bankrupt.
All of this threatens to make it more difficult to distribute the vaccine.
The White House aims high
display
"Operation Warp Speed" is what the US government called the program with which it promoted vaccine research.
And with "faster than light", promised the elected US President Donald Trump, the finished product will also be delivered.
By the end of December, 20 million citizens are said to have been vaccinated, and 100 million by the end of March next year.
Future President Joe Biden announced a similar schedule.
But if the fears of Beardslee and other experts hold true, the White House could miss these goals.
Everything seemed to be working fine on Monday at least.
There were no reports of damaged or stolen shipments.
The reward for the fact that America had been preparing for "Covid-D-Day" for months.
Pfizer kept sending empty boxes across the country in trucks and airplanes and optimizing supply chains.
Hospitals got bigger refrigerators to store the vaccine and new diesel generators in case the power went out.
They also installed more surveillance cameras to catch vaccine thieves.
And their management worked out plans of who receives the first doses in which wards - because the first few days will usually not be enough for all doctors and nurses.
There is one thing that Pfizer, McKesson, the clinics, and even the government have little control over: whether the Americans will accept BNT162b2.
The majority of Americans are reluctant to vaccinate
Corona is highly political in the USA, many citizens view masks and distance rules as symbols of submission.
The state, they think, is interfering too much in their private life.
Vaccines generate similar skepticism.
In a survey last weekend, only 40 percent said they wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible.
The others want to wait - or refuse altogether.
display
One reason for this is the fear that Trump had urged the FDA to approve the vaccine before all tests were completed.
On Friday, shortly before approval, Trump described the FDA as a "big, old, lame turtle".
The vaccine, he wrote on Twitter, had to be distributed “damn it” immediately.
Such rates are likely to lead some citizens to distrust the cargo from FedEx and UPS trucks that are now rolling around the country by the hundreds.