‘Try to honor the loss:’ Why CNN broadcast a national memorial service for 500,000 lives lost to Covid-19

by



[ad_1]

More than 500,000 Americans have died from Covid. Over 500,000 lives cut short by a pandemic we will never forget. Journalists are looking for words, illustrations and images to respond to the scale of the moment.
As NPR’s Pien Huang wrote on Monday, “Losing half a million lives to this disease was unimaginable when the first people died from COVID-19 in the United States last February.”

Huang quoted Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, former president of the American Public Health Association, who said that “the massive number and loss of these people in our society has not been recognized. We cannot think that these people are disposable and useless and we can get along just fine without them. It’s these kinds of blinders that undermine the strength of any society. “

President Biden and his administration did their best to acknowledge the loss with a tribute and a moment of candlelit silence at the White House as night fell on Monday. Broadcast networks broadcast it live with major cable news networks. Several shows have shown the faces of the victims and personalized the unfathomable loss.

“Please don’t look away from it or go numb in the face of the pandemic,” CNN’s Lisa Respers France, daily contributor to this newsletter, tweeted Monday. Lisa’s father passed away last week. She wrote: “My dad and uncle are included in that number and it’s a pain that I don’t wish on anyone. Death always hurts, but it’s excruciating when you know it’s not necessary. “

You’re not alone.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar “broke down on the air” while “sharing tragic clips of those who lost family members to Covid-19 – urging viewers to remember the lives lost even if they are “exploited” and “tired” of the pandemic, “Mediaite’s Leia Idliby wrote.
“I know it’s tough. I hear it from a lot of you,” Keilar said. “I know you are tired. I know you are tapped. It has been over a year since the first reported case of coronavirus. The quarantine, the hope that it would go away only to realize it would not be anytime soon, having trouble making ends meet, worrying that if it’s the day you might have a fever or start coughing, juggling your job while you school your kids at home, being scared to see your grandparents, to be afraid to see your grandchildren, knowing that there is a vaccine that you and your loved ones cannot yet get, struggling with mental health issues. And for nearly 500,000 Americans this year they lost their lives. It’s a collective loss. We take this moment to admit it. You are not alone. And if you are lucky enough to still have some fuel in your tank today is a good day to remind someone in your life that you are are there for him. “

Faith, reflection, healing

CNN aired “We Remember 500,000: A National Memorial Service for Covid-19” on Monday. I asked host Jake Tapper how the special hour-long program came about. “Last spring, given the administration’s refusal to acknowledge the capital loss our nation was suffering, a good friend of mine suggested that CNN bridge this chasm,” Tapper replied. “That was for 100,000 deaths from Covid in the United States.” (The special aired on Sunday, May 31.)

“Tragically, we’re at another horrific and heartbreaking milestone, 500,000. So it made even more sense to take a moment to try to honor the loss, and maybe find some community and maybe even a broader meaning. in faith and reflection, ”Tapper said. “I am grateful as always to work in an information network and for a boss who makes such moments possible.”

We’ll never know the total death toll

During the Covid response team briefing on Monday, a reporter referred to the fact that “some officials and health experts said that we almost certainly underestimate deaths from COVID-19 in this country.” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said: “I think when history writes this, we will understand that the mortality from this pandemic is way above the numbers we have counted, for many reasons.”



[ad_2]

Source link