Daily chart Why has America’s vaccination programme slowed so much?

ON JULY 4TH President Joe Biden stood on the White House lawn to declare that America was nearing independence from the coronavirus. But with covid-19 not fully “vanquished”, he called upon his fellow citizens to get vaccinated, telling them that “it’s the most patriotic thing you can do.” About 55% of Americans over the age of 12 have now been fully vaccinated, and a further 10% have had the first of two doses. But in recent weeks America’s vaccination rate has slowed markedly. In April 3m doses were administered each day; since June that figure has fallen to an average of 1m per day.

There are three possible explanations for this slow-down. The first is that it is typical for vaccination rates to fall as more people are jabbed, since those in cities and other easy-to-reach areas are likely to have been targeted already. Yet America does not appear to have reached such a threshold. Other rich countries, such as sparsely populated Canada, continued to vaccinate at a decent clip until about 75% of their populations had received their first dose (see left-hand chart). Germany, which has vaccinated a similar proportion of its citizens as America, is currently vaccinating at nearly three times the rate.

The second possibility is that the availability of vaccines has diminished in America. Airfinity, a life-sciences data company, finds that domestic production of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that form the backbone of the country’s programme fell from 2m doses a day in April to 750,000 doses a day in June. But that is probably because of the large stock that built up. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 51m doses await use—enough for 30m people, or 11% of those eligible, to be fully vaccinated.

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