The White House briefing room is famously cramped. Nine metres by 20, it's built on the

site of the former presidential swimming pool where Lyndon Johnson liked to lounge around

naked. With seats for 49 reporters, plus snaking TV cables and sprigs of microphones,

it's normally packed. Its denizens sit elbow to elbow, like passengers on a cheap flight.

Just like those flights, the press room has been two-thirds empty for the past year, but

this week reporters were crammed back together again after the White House scrapped social

distancing. Washington is returning to normal as the pandemic

recedes, thanks to a successful vaccination programme. With the domestic crisis abating,

Joe Biden has flown abroad for the first time as president. How will the return to normality

change his and America's leadership? This is checks and balance.

I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor. Each week we take one big theme shaping American

politics and explore it in depth. Today is the pandemic over in America.

President Biden is in Britain for the G7 summit. Accelerating the vaccine rollout so the

rest of the world catches up with America is a priority for the club of rich democracies.

It's a contrast to a year ago when America's failure to manage the pandemic ruined its reputation

as a world leader on public health. What might the success of the vaccine rollout mean

for its global role?

With me to discuss all of this are John Fasman, the US digital editor and Tamara Jilk Spore,

the US policy correspondent. Tamara, how are you doing? Do you feel that life is getting

back to something like normal in DC? I do feel like things are getting back to normal.

I'm noticing that people are going to restaurants and I was actually in New Jersey this weekend

visiting family and you could walk into restaurants without your mask on and it felt pretty

...