In a grim speech to the country when the US surpassed half a million coronavirus deaths on Monday, Joe Biden urged the country to unite in its fight against the virus.
“I ask all Americans to remember what we lost and what we left behind. But as we all remember, I also ask us to act, to remain vigilant, to remain socially distanced, to hide, to be vaccinated if it is your turn, ‘the President said in his White House speech.
Biden used the speech to urge Americans to overcome bias and follow public health guidelines while his administration rushed to spread vaccines and end the pandemic.
Biden has previously been criticized for being too cautious in setting targets for the distribution of vaccines, but the government has said it has increased vaccination rates to 1.7 million a day, and that its target of 100m shots within the first 100 days of the administration.
However, the president’s speech Monday did not focus on benchmarks. Instead, Biden focused on the loss that Americans experienced due to the pandemic and the larger theme of coming together – something Biden emphasized during his campaign.
‘We must put an end to the politics of misinformation that divides families, communities and the country; it has cost too many lives, ”Biden continued in his speech. “It’s not Democrats or Republicans who are dying from the virus. These are our fellow Americans, these are our neighbors. These are our friends, our mothers, our fathers, our daughters, husbands, wives. We must fight it as a nation, as the United States of America. This is the only way we are going to beat this virus, I promise you. ”
Biden’s speech was presented by solemn rituals to honor the 500,000 deaths. Before his speech, the National Cathedral rang 500 times; thereafter, the President joined President Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Second Lord Doug Emhoff outside the White House, where they surrounded a moment of silence with 500 candles.
The Biden administration’s approach to tackling the pandemic differs markedly from the Trump administration. Where Trump regularly erased the severity of the virus, the Biden team offered several opportunities to acknowledge its severity, including a first address, a memorial service and a moment of silence. Biden and his team stressed the importance of remembering how serious the pandemic is.
“As a nation, we cannot accept such a cruel fate. “While we have been fighting this pandemic for so long, we must resist becoming sad,” Biden said.
The US has recorded the worst death toll of any country in the world, but there are promising signs ahead. Hospitalizations have declined nationwide by more than 50% in the past month, and as of Sunday, more than 13% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of Covid vaccine.
Biden’s speech spoke to this optimism, saying that America and the world would overcome the pandemic.
‘Let it not be a story of how far we have fallen, but how far we have climbed again. We can do it, ”said Biden.
“This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again and as we do so, we will remember every person we lost, the lives they lived, and the loved ones they left behind. We will go through what I promise you. ‘