WASHINGTON – “We all missed something,” President Biden said in his comments to the nation on Thursday night, marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Seeking unity in sadness, Biden noted that the end was near, although the end of the game was complicated.
If all went well, he said, there could be a normal Independence Day to wait for, barbecues and fireworks and everything.
Above all, he paid tribute to the 527,726 dead of COVID-19, as well as the millions who lost their jobs, who had their education relegated to a canvas, who no longer have the simple but necessary freedoms they once considered guaranteed.
“I promise you, we will come out stronger,” said Biden, trying to moderate the difficult realities of the moment with a measure of optimism. To that end, he made several promises, mainly that he would order all states to make the coronavirus vaccine available to all American adults by May 1.
But becoming eligible for the vaccine is not the same as actually having the vaccine administered. This makes the impact of this promise in the real world somewhat obscure, even though it signals states that they must move through the layers of eligible recipients more quickly.
He also announced that an additional 4,000 national guards would be called in to assist in the vaccination effort. Two thousand National Guards are already participating in this work.
And while he was not involved with Trump and his legacy, he drew a clear line between his response and that of the man he defeated in the presidential race last November, largely promising to deal with the pandemic more consistently. In his comments, he described how vaccination has accelerated since taking office.
“When I took office 50 days ago, just 8% after months, only 8% of people over 65 had received their first vaccination,” said Biden. “Today, that number is 65 percent.”
He also said that a big push is coming to reopen schools, something Trump promised but failed to deliver. The issue also plagued Biden.
Looking carefully beyond the pandemic, Biden risked that Americans could have a semi-normal Independence Day, although only if people continued to follow public health measures in the meantime and were vaccinated when they could. Several times he begged people to wear masks, something that his predecessor, Donald Trump, did not like to do intensely.
The holiday, said Biden, would be when Americans “not only marked our independence as a nation, but also started to mark our independence from this virus”. And although the Fourth of July is months away, Biden preemptively warned against planning large meetings. Some critics of social media considered it improper for the president to already impose such limits.
Grief is familiar ground for Biden, who lost his wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972 and then a son due to cancer in 2015. In both cases, he emerged from grief with a single conviction: “You have to have a purpose, ”as I told Time magazine last January, when I was running for president and most Americans had barely heard of the coronavirus.
Earlier in the day, Biden signed the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus, which has been described as the most significant domestic legislation in a generation. As the pandemic subsides, he and Vice President Kamala Harris will tour the country, arguing that this huge disbursement is necessary and effective.
In the meantime, Biden will also begin to defend a massive infrastructure package, while carefully watching for any resurgence of the pandemic, which, he warned, could lead to another round of unwanted blockades.
But no such blockade appears on the immediate horizon, and although the president spoke sadly on Thursday night, he also strove to restore Americans’ shattered faith in the institutions of their democracy.
“We need to remember that the government is not a foreign force in a distant capital,” said Biden. “No, it’s us, all of us. We the people. “
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Biden lamented that, under his predecessor, people “have lost faith in whether our government and our democracy can provide really difficult things for the American people.” He promised that the government can and will do it. Upon hearing the president tell, the first 50 days of government are proof that he has already done so.
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