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Evidence of a sad new milestone in this pandemic can be found in many places (not just) in the United States. Since Monday, American flags have been flown at half-mast over public buildings, military bases and American missions abroad in mourning for five days. And now the new man in the White House has also thought about the more than 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the United States.
US President Joe Biden warned against blunting society in light of the high number. “Although we have fought this pandemic for so long, we have to fight not to become deaf to suffering,” Biden said in a speech at the White House on Monday night (local time). 500 candles lined the steps of America’s center of power.
“Today we mark a truly grim and heartbreaking milestone: 500,071 dead. That’s more Americans who died from this pandemic in one year than in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined, ”he said.
Biden called on Americans to continue to wear masks, adhere to distance rules, and get vaccinated when it is their turn. “We must end the policy of disinformation that has divided families, communities and the country. It has already cost too many lives, ”he said, referring to the tenure of his predecessor Donald Trump.
The United States has a disproportionate number of deaths, accounting for 19 percent of coronavirus deaths in the world, as the country accounts for only four percent of the world’s population. The first infection in the US was confirmed on January 21, 2020. According to current knowledge, the first disease-related deaths occurred almost exactly one year ago in February 2020.
In May there were already 100,000 dead. The number doubled in September. In December the threshold of 300,000 was reached. 46 percent of all corona deaths were confirmed from December to February this year, even though the vaccination campaign has already started. In 2020, the expected half-life in the US was shortened by a full year. This is the steepest decline since World War II.
Biden: “This country will laugh again”
Following the speech, the President and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her husband Douglas Emhoff honored the victims with a minute of silence. Later, the bells of the Washington National Cathedral rang 500 times.
Although the occasion was sad, the new president of the United States tried to be optimistic: “This country will laugh again, this country will have sunny days again. This country will be happy again, ”he said. “We will remember all the people we have lost, the lives they had and the loved ones they left behind,” Biden said.
In reality, the number of new infections in the US is declining significantly, with an average of 1.7 million people getting vaccinated each day.
In addition to Biden, leading US virologist Anthony Fauci, a White House adviser under both Trump and Biden, also spoke, sees the country’s political division as a major factor in the “shocking” death toll from the virus. When it arrived in the US, this division was noticed again. Even wearing protective masks has become a political and not a medical problem, he told Reuters.
Fauci speaks of a “lack of participation” in the White House
“Even under the best conditions, that would have been a major problem,” says Fauci, referring to the risk of Covid-19 infection: “But that doesn’t explain how a rich and highly developed nation … can become the country. most affected in the world. “In 100 years, nothing comparable had happened to the country in the health sector. In the coming decades, people “will remember the terrible year 2020 and maybe 2021,” Fauci said.
Donald Trump (left) and Anthony Fauci (in March 2020)
Photo: ALEXANDER DRAGO / REUTERS
If the fight against the virus had failed, “the lack of participation in the country’s top management” would not have helped either. Fauci and then-President Trump had clashed repeatedly, with attacks originating from Trump. He had repeatedly exposed his own virus expert in public.
However, by his own account, Fauci reached his lowest point when he discovered that numerous cities and states had simply ignored his commission’s recommendations for a safe reopening after a shutdown. That was “unimaginable for me, when you can see with your own eyes what is happening.”
