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'Resist Becoming Numb': Biden Pays Tribute To The 500,000 Who Died - And Those They Left Behind


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The Daily Beast

‘Resist Becoming Numb’: Biden Pays Tribute to the 500,000 Who Died—and Those They Left Behind

Scott Bixby, Erin Banco
Mon, February 22, 2021, 7:23 PM
 
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty
 
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty

For the second time in 33 days, President Joe Biden gathered the nation on Monday to mourn a loss it can no longer fathom, to collectively grieve after a year of grief beyond imagining, as the nation’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic officially crossed half a million people.

“We often hear people described as ‘ordinary Americans,’ but there’s no such thing,” Biden said, standing in the Cross Hall of the White House. “The people we lost were extraordinary.”

The pandemic year has seen more deaths, as the president noted in a proclamation commanding all U.S. flags be flown at half-mast until sundown on Friday, than the number of Americans who perished “in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined.”

 

“That’s more lives lost to this virus than any other nation on earth,” Biden said. “They’re people we knew. They’re people we feel like we knew… The son who called his mom every night, just to check in. The father’s daughter who lit up his world. The best friend who was always there. The nurse—the nurses—the nurse who made her patients want to live.”

 

Biden, whose life and public service has been defined by moments of deep grief, urged Americans to learn from his losses, to “resist becoming numb to the sorrow” of an empty seat at the dinner table.

“I know all too well,” Biden said, appearing to keep back tears as he spoke. “I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens. I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands, as you look in their eye as they slip away.”

Biden concluded his remarks by asking Americans to “find purpose” in their grief, a purpose worthy of the lives lost in a terrible year.

“This nation will know joy again,” Biden said, before making his way to the candlelit South Portico, where the U.S. Marine Corps Band played “Amazing Grace.” The National Cathedral, 15 minutes away, had just finished tolling its 12-ton Bourdon Bell 500 times, once for every thousand lives lost in the United States. “We will get through this, I promise you.”

With the first lady, the vice president and the second gentleman at his side, each wearing a black face mask, Biden then led the country in a moment of silence to reflect on the darkest moment of the “dark winter” he’d warned would come. It was 100,000 more deaths since he last told the nation in January, on the eve of his inauguration, that “to heal we must remember,” and 200,000 more than when he told Americans in December that his heart went out to those about to enter the new year “with a black hole in your hearts—without the ones you loved at your side.”

The ceremony was, of course, largely symbolic. The nation’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic almost certainly crossed the 500,000 mark weeks ago—excess deaths remain roughly 20 percent higher than the official death toll—and the total number of lives lost to the virus will probably continue to rise long even after the pandemic has finally receded, given the upwards revision of estimated death tolls for past pandemics.

What the moment did mark, however, is the cementing of the pandemic—and the government’s response to it—as Biden’s responsibility. Yes, he was left a national response that was in worse shape than he could have imagined, with millions of missing vaccine doses and an anti-inoculation movement that has run rampant on social media. His predecessor had lost interest in addressing the pandemic months before his term ended, turning attention to an unsuccessful coup attempt that his own task force warned would cost American lives.

But no president, alone in his thoughts during a moment of silence remembering 500,000 dead citizens, can plausibly go back to repeating the White House’s line from earlier days that he’s “only been here three and a half weeks,” or “only been here three weeks,” or “only been here two and a half weeks,” as White House press secretary Jen Psaki had told reporters in the last week.

 

It took weeks for the Biden COVID-19 task force to get its footing. For the first several days, the administration struggled to explain exactly how it would get vaccinations moving and why states across the country were canceling appointments en masse. Officials offered various answers, including that the administration was still trying to locate millions of doses and that the Trump administration had left them with a broken distribution playbook. In that time, thousands of people died, many of whom were infected before Biden took office. Still, the talking points at most press conferences on COVID-19 over the last several weeks have focused on the fact that case and death numbers across the country are steadily decreasing.

While the nation’s vaccination rate is improving and the administration has inked new deals with pharmaceutical companies to ensure doses flow throughout the next several months, health officials are still concerned about the emergence of new variants. Officials say while data suggests that the vaccines available to Americans work well against the United Kingdom and South African mutations, other, potentially more deadly variants could cause another surge this spring—and further delay any semblance of normalcy in American life.

Back to normal—children attending school in an actual school, adults making face-to-face small talk with colleagues, families eating at restaurants and celebrating weddings and gathering for funerals, and a White House where visitors aren’t tested for a virus as thoroughly as they are for firearms—has never seemed so far away. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lone holdover from the Trump administration’s beleaguered COVID-19 firmament, appears perpetually on the verge of telling Americans that we’ll never have true “normal” again.

“It really depends on what you mean by ‘normality,’” Fauci said in an interview last weekend. “If ‘normality’ means exactly the way things were before we had this happen to us, I can’t predict that.”

Biden, too, has been cautious not to overpromise on timelines for vaccinations or school reopenings, lest he under-deliver or be thwarted by any number of the many factors beyond his control. It remains a giant question whether vaccinations stop the spread of the virus, or whether children can be effectively vaccinated, which means that “normal” for families will be delayed even longer. A third of people say they won’t get a vaccine, for reasons either understandable and moronic. Other once-in-a-century disasters, like the Texas deep freeze that delayed the delivery of tens of thousands of vaccinations, could further move “normal” out of reach.

The reality of that possibility comes as the nation’s grieving process has moved on from shock and denial and depression to, increasingly, anger. Violence against Asian Americans is increasing across the country. Voters are increasingly desperate that Congress won’t be able to send additional COVID relief to Biden’s desk until mid-March, even as he went the fast route rather than sacrifice, as one Biden insider put it, “two or three months of negotiation” that would have led to “only two or three Republican votes.”

Biden’s focus, Psaki told reporters ahead of Monday’s ceremony, is on passing the American Rescue Plan and ensuring that the nation has enough vaccines to inoculate 300 million Americans against the virus.

“But the American people have a role to play here as well,” Psaki said. “Wearing masks, social distancing. Everybody wants to get back to normal, but the president, the federal government can’t do that alone. It is going to take everybody participating in that process to get closer to normalcy.”

 

https://news.yahoo.com/resist-becoming-biden-pays-tribute-002336148.html

 

GO RV, then BV

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Business Insider

See pictures of the White House candlelight ceremony honoring the 500,000 Americans who died in the pandemic

Sarah Al-Arshani
Mon, February 22, 2021, 10:24 PM
 
Biden 500,000 covid-19 deaths memorial
 
From left, President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, stand outside the White House during a ceremony to honor the 500,000 Americans that died from COVID-19, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 in Washington. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
  • President Joe Biden mourned the more than 500,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 on Monday.

  • Biden drew on his own experiences of loss to offer advice and hope to those who lost loved ones.

  • The US has recorded more than 28 million cases, more than any other country.

  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

President Joe Biden mourned the deaths of the over 500,000 Americans who died from COVID-19 on Monday.

"We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There's no such thing," he said during a memorial on Monday. "There's nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary."

With over 28 million cases, the US recorded a grim milestone of half a million deaths from the virus, a year since the first known coronavirus death was recorded in the US.

 

Biden spoke directly to those who have lost friends or family to the virus, touching on his own personal experience with loss.

"I know all too well. I know what it's like to not be there when it happens," Biden said. "I know what it's like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. That black hole in your chest, you feel like you're being sucked into it."

Biden has spoken publicly about the deaths of his first wife and daughter who were killed in a car crash shortly after his Senate election in 1972. His son Beau died from brain cancer in 2015.

"I know it's hard. I promise you," he said, "I remember."

His predecessor, former President Donald Trump, repeatedly downplayed the pandemic and the toll it was taking on Americans.

At a time when COVID-19 deaths surpassed 225,000 in late October, Trump - just days away from the November election - downplayed the rising number of cases and falsely claimed that there was unnecessary attention to the topic.

He baselessly claimed that the rise of cases was due to increased testing.

"Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST," he wrote in a tweet at the time. "A Fake News Media Conspiracy. Many young people who heal very fast. 99.9%. Corrupt media conspiracy at all time high. On November 4th, topic will totally change. VOTE!"

Last March, Trump told journalist Bob Woodward: "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic."

Biden instead has chosen to acknowledge the lost lives and collective pain many have endured during the pandemic and offered a hopeful tone for the future.

"This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we'll remember each person we've lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind," Biden said.

"We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or, on the news. We must do so to honor the dead. But, equally important, to care for the living."

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at salarshani@insider.com

Biden ordered flags on federal property to be flown at half-staff for five days on Monday.

biden covid deaths memorial
 
US President Joe Biden speaks about lives lost to COVID-19 after death toll passed 500,000, in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, DC, February 22, 2021. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Source: White House

The coronavirus death toll is higher than those killed in both world wars and the Vietnam War combined, Biden said.

President Joe Biden memorial COVID-19 500,000 deaths
 
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hold a moment of silence during a candelight ceremony in honor of those who lost their lives to Coronavirus on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, February 22, 2021. Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

There's some hope as cases and hospitalization have been on the decline over the past few weeks.

Biden memorial  500,000 lives lost to COVID-19
 
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the more than 500,000 lives lost to COVID-19 in the Cross Hall of the White House February 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. Also on hand for the ceremony were first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff. Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

Source: Insider

However, the threat of more transmissible and potentially deadlier variants like the one discovered in the UK concern public health experts.

500,000 covid deaths white house memorial
 
From left, President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, bow their heads during a ceremony to honor the 500,000 Americans that died from COVID-19, at the White House, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021, in Washington. () AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Source: Insider

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser for Covid-19 said he's hopeful that by the fall the US could have a degree of normality.

500,000 covid deaths memorial
 
President Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff attend a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony to commemorate the grim milestone of 500,000 US deaths from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the White House in Washington, US, February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst More

Fauci told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" that while he can't predict when Americans could go back to pre-pandemic behaviors, he thinks "we're going to have a significant degree of normality beyond the terrible burden that all of us have been through over the last year."

Read the original article on Business Insider

 

https://news.yahoo.com/see-pictures-white-house-candlelight-032420547.html

 

GO RV, then BV

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