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 In a proclamation honoring the dead, President Joe Biden ordered the
U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff on public buildings and grounds
until sunset on Friday.
"On this solemn occasion, we reflect on their loss and on their
loved ones left behind," Biden said in the proclamation. "We, as a
Nation, must remember them so we can begin to heal, to unite, and
find purpose as one Nation to defeat this pandemic."
Bells tolled at the National Cathedral in Washington to honor the
lives lost - ringing 500 times to symbolize the 500,000 deaths.
“As we acknowledge the scale of this mass death in America, remember
each person and the life they lived," Biden said in a somber speech
at the White House after the bells sounded.
"The son who called his mom every night just to check in. The
father, the daughter who lit up his world. The best friend who was
always there. … The nurse who made her patients want to live."
A few moments later, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their
spouses appeared wearing black clothing and black masks. They stood
silently as the hymn "Amazing Grace" was played.
The country had recorded more than 28 million COVID-19 cases and
500,264 lives lost as of Monday afternoon, according to a Reuters
tally of public health data, although daily cases and
hospitalizations have fallen to the lowest level since before the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
About 19% of total global coronavirus deaths have occurred in the
United States, an outsized figure given that the nation accounts for
just 4% of the world's population.
“This is the worst thing that’s happened to this country with regard
to the health of the nation in over 100 years,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a
top infectious disease adviser to President Joe Biden, said in an
interview with Reuters on Monday. He added that decades from now,
people would be talking about “that horrible year of 2020, and maybe
2021.”
For most of 2020, Fauci served on former President Donald Trump’s
White House Coronavirus Task Force, a job that often put him at odds
with Trump, who sought to downplay the severity of pandemic despite
contracting COVID-19 himself, and refused to issue a national mask
mandate.
Political divisiveness, Fauci said, contributed significantly to the
U.S. death toll.
MORE VIGILANCE URGED
The country's poor performance reflects the lack of a unified,
national response last year, when the administration of former
President Donald Trump mostly left states to their own devices in
tackling the greatest public health crisis in a century, with the
president often in conflict with his own health experts.
[to top of second column] |
 In 2020, the virus has taken a
full year off the average life expectancy in the
United States, the biggest decline since World
War Two.
Sweeping through the country at the beginning of
last year, the U.S. epidemic had claimed its
first 100,000 lives by May.
The death toll doubled by September as the virus
ebbed and surged during the summer months.
Pandemic-weary Americans, like so many around
the world, grappled with the mountain of loss
brought by COVID-19 as health experts warned of
yet another coronavirus resurgence during the
fall and winter months.
Americans lost mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers,
sisters and friends to the virus. For many, the grief was amplified
by the inability to see loved ones in hospitals or nursing homes and
by the physical distancing imposed by authorities to curb the virus
spread.
By December, the death toll had reached 300,000 in the United
States. In the three months after Thanksgiving, the virus would
claim 230,000 lives.
With numbers that made the appalling toll early in the pandemic pale
by comparison, deaths recorded between December and February
accounted for 46% of all U.S. COVID-19 fatalities, even as vaccines
finally became available and a monumental effort to inoculate the
American public got started.
Despite the grim milestone, the virus appears to have loosened its
grip as COVID-19 cases in United States fell for the sixth
consecutive week. Health experts have warned, however, that
coronavirus variants initially discovered in Britain, South Africa
and Brazil could unleash another wave that threatens to reverse the
recent positive trends.
In his White House remarks, Biden called on Americans to remain
vigilant in fighting the pandemic by continuing to wear masks,
observe social distancing and receive vaccinations when it is their
turn.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York, Julie Steenhuysen in
Chicago; Anurag Maan in Bengaluru, Andrea Shalal, Susan Heavey and
Timothy Ahmann in Washington and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento;
Writing by Maria Caspani and Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker, Bill Berkrot and Peter Cooney)
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