The two curves would eventually cross.
France passed the United States again on Saturday for the number of daily vaccinations against Covid-19, for the first time since the start of the crisis, according to data compiled by the Our World In Data platform.
A little over 400,000 doses are administered each day on average, or 640 per 100,000 inhabitants.
In the United States, that number has fallen below 600.
The situation between the two countries is totally reversed, since the pace is increasing in France (except during public holidays) while it has been slowing for nearly a month across the Atlantic.
In mid-April, more than 1,000 vaccinations per 100,000 inhabitants were carried out there.
But the two countries do not start from the same level at all.
Almost half of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, twice as much as in France.
It is even triple for people who are fully vaccinated (more than 33% in the United States, 10% in France).
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The American authorities are struggling to convince new volunteers and all means, some very original, are being implemented to achieve this.
People who agree to be vaccinated can be offered, in exchange, proportions in the supermarket, free tickets to a baseball game, or even… a beer.
Some companies also offer paid holidays.
In Europe, France penalized by AstraZeneca
If it compares to its main neighbors, France is however left behind by several of them.
Germany and Spain, for example, are running at over 800 vaccinations per 100,000 inhabitants, every day.
The two curves gradually became detached from that for France from the middle of April.
However, the various countries of the European Union are roughly subject to the same rate of vaccine deliveries. But France pays in particular the disenchantment which strikes the product AstraZeneca, of which more than 3 million doses yet delivered until this Sunday were not used. “There is a real differential. We inject much less AstraZeneca than our neighbors, in particular Germany, Spain and Italy, ”acknowledged Tuesday, during a briefing with the press, the Ministry of Health.
In Germany, despite the (very rare) risks of atypical thrombosis, this product has finally also been validated for people under 55 in a doctor's office. The French government would like to do (at least partially) the same thing, which would potentially make it possible to find new volunteers. The High Authority for Health (HAS) must decide on this possibility by "early next week".
