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Joe Biden didn't talk for long when he spoke in the State Dining Room of the White House late Tuesday afternoon.
"The vice president and I have some good news to announce," said the president.
The US would have enough vaccine for all adults in the country "by the end of May".
So far, Biden had aimed for this goal by the end of July.
In the USA, 7.9 percent of the population received the complete vaccination (Germany: 2.6 percent).
So far, 16 percent of Americans have received at least one vaccination dose (Germany: 5 percent).
In the USA, which has about four times as many inhabitants as Germany, over 515,700 people have died of Covid.
Around 71,000 people have died in Germany so far.
Around 1.7 million vaccine doses were vaccinated on Tuesday alone.
The US currently distributes 15.2 million doses of vaccine per week.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said there were 8.6 million vaccine doses a week when the Biden government took office.
Under the former President Donald Trump, the United States had ordered several hundred million vaccine doses for the approximately 330 million inhabitants.
Source: WORLD infographic
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A few days ago, in a conversation with CNN, Biden falsely claimed that there had been no vaccinations before he took office.
Last but not least, Biden himself had already been vaccinated at the end of 2020, four weeks before he moved into the White House.
Unlike in Germany, members of the government and members of parliament in the USA have long since been vaccinated.
Even Trump had been vaccinated before leaving office, it was recently revealed.
Biden wanted to have 100 million vaccinations done in the first 100 days of his tenure.
Half of this goal is achieved after 37 days.
With the current vaccination rate, half of the population would have received at least the first vaccination on June 22nd, as the "New York Times" has calculated on the basis of figures from the CDC.
In order not only to maintain the vaccination rate but to increase it further, Biden wants to bring enough vaccine into the country by the end of May to be able to supply all adults.
But how can the US accelerate its considerable vaccination efforts?
There are several levers for this.
This week alone, Washington plans to send 18 million doses of vaccine to the 50 states and territories - that would be a new record.
These include 2.8 million of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which received emergency FDA approval on Saturday.
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The advantage of the Johnson & Johnson vaccination: It only requires one can and does not have to be extremely refrigerated.
Storage in the refrigerator is sufficient.
In addition, a vaccination box costs only ten dollars (around eight euros), far less than the previously approved vaccinations from Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna.
As in Germany with the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, however, many Americans are skeptical of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
This has a 72 percent effectiveness.
A value that is well below those of Moderna and Pfizer / Biontech.
Johnson & Johnson argues that vaccination prevents severe disease by 85 percent.
In addition, the clinical study took place while mutated variants of the virus were already in circulation.
"I would take the vaccine" tries Anthony Fauci, the top US epidemic advocate and Biden adviser, to calm the population.
But not everything is going smoothly in the USA either: Johnson & Johnson signed a contract with the government last year that provided for the delivery of 37 million cans by the end of March.
Now the company can only deliver 20 million cans this month, most of them apparently only in the last weeks of March.
Canada and Mexico are asking for imports
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While the US doesn't export vaccines, it does import some.
The first Johnson & Johnson vaccines are manufactured in a Dutch factory, delivered to the USA and bottled in the state of Michigan.
In the future, Johnson & Johnson plans to manufacture the vaccine in a new factory in Baltimore, Maryland.
The pharmaceutical company (headquarters: New Brunswick, state of New Jersey) plans to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June, according to a contract.
For this, the US is paying a billion dollars, about 800 million euros.
The USA will also receive 300 million vaccine doses each from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna by the end of July at the latest.
In their recent bilateral talks, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Biden asked if the US could allow vaccine sales in their two countries.
Canada and Mexico lag behind Germany in terms of vaccination records.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine will in future also be produced by the competing pharmaceutical company Merck.
Biden classified this on Tuesday with historical pathos.
"This is the kind of corporate collaboration we saw in World War II," he said.
He pointed out that his government had used the Defense Production Act for this.
With that law from the Korean War, companies can be obliged to manufacture goods that are essential for the war effort.
According to its own information, Merck will receive start-up funding of around 270 million dollars (around 225 million euros) from the federal government.
According to Biden, two Merck factories will now be equipped with the standards required for the safe manufacture of the vaccine on the basis of the Defense Production Act.
Biden announced on Tuesday that it would use the Defense Production Act to have equipment, machines and accessories for vaccine production available more quickly.
He had asked the Department of Defense to "logistically support" the efforts of Johnson & Johnson on a daily basis.
The Biden government also wants all teachers to be vaccinated by the end of March.
The aim is that educators, teachers, members of the school staff and employees in child and youth welfare receive at least one vaccine dose in March, the president said on Tuesday.
To achieve this extremely ambitious goal, qualified individuals could register this month to be vaccinated at a pharmacy.
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The states are using the vaccinations they have received far faster than in the first few weeks.
77 percent of the available vaccine doses are currently set, 79 out of 102 million.
A few weeks ago, usage was only around 50 percent.
Some states, such as North Dakota and New Mexico, have given 90 percent of the vaccine available to them.
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The poorly populated Alaska continues to lead the statistics of the best vaccination supplies.
Almost every fourth inhabitant received at least one vaccination can, and every seventh received the full vaccination.
New Mexico and South Dakota work equally well.
The most populous state of California is about average, slightly better with the first vaccination and slightly worse with the full vaccination.
New York and Texas are below the cut.
The red lantern form the capital Washington, Georgia and Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, only eleven percent received a vaccination and six percent received the full vaccination.
Despite the globally highly successful vaccination record, President Biden warns against easing the precautions taken to protect against the epidemic.
One should not give up vigilance, he said on Tuesday, referring to the need to wear masks.
When he took office on January 20, he had set the Americans for tough months and asked them to wear the mask for the next 100 days.
The Biden government made mask compulsory in transportation, for example on trains and airplanes.
Trump had regularly made fun of wearing a mask.
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When asked when things will get back to normal, Biden said they didn't know for sure.
But he hoped that by this time next year things would be normal again.
Biden's cautionary note is met with opposition from Republicans.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, lifted the mask requirement in public places on Tuesday.
Abbott also ended the indoor restaurant limit on the number of diners.
He announced it in a crowded dining room.
As a result of the power outage 14 days ago, Texas fell far behind in the vaccination record.
In addition, the seven-day average of infections in Texas, at around 7,300 cases daily, is higher than in any other state.