U.S. MARKS MILESTONE OF 500,000 COVID-19 DEATHS
Grim tally comes as number of new coronavirus cases drops to lowest level since fall
By the light of 500 candles as “Amazing Grace” played outside the White House, President Joe Biden bowed his head in a minute of reflection on the 500,000 American lives lost to the coronavirus, crossing himself after the music faded out.
Moments earlier, he noted that the death toll from the pandemic has exceeded America’s battlefield deaths in both world wars and the Vietnam War combined.
“The people we lost were extraordinary,” Biden said in the White House’s Cross Hall. “They span generations. Born in America, immigrated to America. But just like that, so many of them took their final breath alone in America.”
Somber reminders will endure for the rest of the week, with flags flying at half-staff at all federal buildings, parks and other properties.
Although it was not ref lected in the solemn sundown ceremony, Monday also brought decidedly good news on the coronavirus front. The pace of vaccinations is accelerating, deaths and new infections are sharply down, and worries about just how bad the pandemic can get are being replaced with halting questions about when, exactly, all this will be behind us.
But those positive signs have been played down by a federal government that opted this week to focus on the grim pandemic milestone and is cautious of giving Americans an excuse to lower their guards prematurely.
Government experts worry that if they are too ebullient about the recent positive strides, it will prompt pandemic-weary Americans to relax too soon, becoming less mindful of their masks and the social distancing that remain the strongest weapons against the virus.
An uptick in gatherings or maskless moments could erase the gains the nation has made and seed new infections, experts warn. Adding to the risk is the presence of coronavirus variants
that can be both more contagious and less affected by existing vaccines.
“Now we peaked, we turned around and we’re coming down,” Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said in an interview. “But we’re still at a weekly average of 68,000 infections. Now is not the time to say, ‘We’re doing really well, let’s pull back.’ ”
The Biden team’s caution was reflected in the quiet tones of Andy Slavitt, a senior White House COVID-19 adviser who started and ended Monday’s White House briefing on the coronavirus on a solemn note, speaking of the tragic milestone of a halfmillion deaths and reminding people to tune in to Biden’s sundown memorial ceremony.
But between the somber bookends, officials provided some of the most unreservedly good news the nation had received in nearly a year of pandemic-induced isolation.
The seven-day average number of cases is down 75 percent from the peak on Jan. 11, the coronavirus task force reported. The sevenday rolling average is now under 65,000, a level not seen since the fall. The daily hospital admission rate dropped 60 percent since its peak on Jan. 9. Deaths have dropped nearly 39 percent.
There was even more good news when it came to reopening schools, which has been a contentious issue since Biden said he wanted them to be open in his first 100 days.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that since the CDC issued its guidance on school reopening about two weeks ago, the number of counties with coronavirus transmission in the “red” zone — enduring the highest transmission rates — has dropped from 90 percent to 60 percent.
About 18 percent of counties have low to moderate transmission, she said, and those counties could have full-time in-person schooling for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, she said. An additional 22 percent were in “substantial” range and should have a hybrid model up to fifth grade.
Walensky, too, tried to temper the good news, making it clear that the nation is hardly out of the woods.
Scientists say the trajectory of the U.S. death toll will depend on the speed of vaccinations, the effects of the variants and how closely people stick to guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration said that vaccine developers would not need to conduct lengthy randomized controlled trials to evaluate any vaccines that have been adapted to target variants.
The recommendations, which call for small trials more like what’s required for annual flu vaccines, would greatly accelerate the review process at a time when scientists are increasingly anxious about how the variants might slow or reverse progress made against the virus.
Most of the vaccine manufacturers with authorized vaccines or candidates in late-stage trials have already announced plans to adjust their products to address the vaccine variants.
Although the federal government has secured enough vaccine to vaccinate every American by July, Biden has said it could be Christmas before things begin to feel like normal. Fauci has warned that Americans could still be wearing masks in 2022.
While tempering expectations can be a political reflex, the events of the past few days also show how easily the positive trend can be reversed.
An ice storm, and ensuing power outages, halted vaccine distribution in Texas and surrounding states last week.
Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency say they have prioritized vaccination sites in their recovery efforts from the storm. But Texas officials say they are worried that shuttered vaccination centers, a lack of running water caused by electricity outages, and neighbors huddled together in warming centers could seed new infections, derailing the progress they’ve made.
Biden administration officials also say it may be a struggle persuading some vulnerable groups to get a coronavirus vaccine. Minority populations have been hit harder by the virus — Black Americans are more than twice as likely to die of it — and there are signs that they are also more hesitant to take the vaccine, in part due to the history of medical discrimination and exploitation of people of color.
That means that even if vaccines are produced in sufficient numbers and distributed effectively to needy areas, it still could take a while for the population to be vaccinated in great enough share to achieve herd immunity.
And while the numbers of coronavirus deaths and infections have dropped, they are still not at the point where society can safely reopen. The CDC’s guidance on mask-wearing and social distancing remains unchanged, and the agency still warns on its website: “Cases are extremely high. Avoid travel.”
The pandemic has cost more American lives than both world wars and the Vietnam War combined, Biden said Monday night. And its infectious nature added a particularly painful side effect, he added: It has stopped Americans from engaging in the common rituals of mourning that honor the dead and help survivors share their sorrow.
“That’s what has been so cruel,” said Biden. “So many of the rituals that help us cope, that help us honor those we love, haven’t been available to us.”
He said he hoped Monday’s moment would give at least a semblance of solace.
“We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow,” Biden said. “We have to resist seeing each life as a statistic or a blurb on the news.”
Monday’s milestone comes just over a year after the first confirmed U.S. fatality from the coronavirus. The pandemic has since swept across the world and the U.S., stressing the nation’s health care system, rattling its economy and rewriting the rules of everyday society.
About 1 in 670 Americans has died of COVID-19, which has now become a leading cause of death in this country, along with heart disease and cancer, and has driven down life expectancy more sharply than in decades.