Biden to mark upcoming 500,000 Covid-19 deaths with candle lighting ceremony

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The president plans to deliver remarks and hold a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House around sunset as early as Monday, if the threshold is crossed, a White House official said. First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Mr. Doug Emhoff will also attend.

Plans for the ceremony underscore the empathetic message Biden has sought to bring to the U.S. coronavirus response since taking office last month – a departure from his predecessor. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday the administration was working on plans for the president to use his own voice and his own platform to take a moment to remember the people whose lives were lost, families still suffering.

A day before taking office, Biden, Harris and their spouses staged a grim ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the 400,000 lives lost to Covid-19 in the United States at the time.

“To heal we have to remember,” Biden said at the January event. Harris also spoke briefly at the memorial, noting that “For many months we have cried on our own. Tonight we cry and begin to heal together.”

Their message contrasts with former President Donald Trump, who has frequently defended his administration’s response to the pandemic but rarely expressed grief for the victims. In September, Trump told Axios on HBO that America’s record of Covid-19, “is what it is.”

“They are dying. That’s right. And you – that’s what it is,” Trump said at the time. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing all we can. It’s under control as much as you can control.”

As coronavirus cases are on the decline and vaccinations increase, the United States is struggling to understand the threat posed by the new variants. Experts – both inside and outside the White House – are still far from certain America is finally making its way out of the pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci, the greatest nationwide infectious disease specialist, telling CNN on Sunday it is “possible” Americans will still have to wear masks in 2022 to protect themselves against the coronavirus, even as the United States could achieve “a significant degree of normalcy” by the end of this year.

“This is a race for the vaccine to be released widely enough and quickly enough that it eliminates the risk of spreading even more strains,” said Dr Bala Hota, infectious disease specialist at Rush. University Medical Center of Chicago. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

This story was updated with additional information on Sunday.

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