Virus variant, racial divide cast cloud on US celebrations

FOR US President Joe Biden, this US Independence Day, serves as an occasion for his administration to declare Americans’ “independence” from Covid-19 and that “America’s back together.”

While the United States is making progress in immunisation against the coronavirus, the rampant spread of the more contagious Delta variant indicates that it is yet too early for the White House to declare its complete victory against the pandemic.

As for Americans coming back together, it is even more of a wishful thinking -at least for the time being, given, among other polarising factors, the racial divide that, despite the conviction and sentencing of a white former police officer who in bright daylight ruthlessly killed a black man gasping for air, still runs deep in so many aspects of society.

Last month, the White House acknowledged it would not achieve its goal of getting 70 percent of Americans vaccinated when the country celebrated the Fourth of July. According to the latest statistics from the

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 54,9 percent of American adults have received at least one dose of vaccines.

Some 1 000 largely unmasked people were invited by the first family to an Independence Day party on the White House South Lawn.

The first large-scale public event hosted by the Biden White House intended to showcase life in the United States has returned to normal.

The plan, according to which attendees are not required to prove they are vaccinated, stands in stark contrast to remarks made by Biden himself in March in a televised address, where the president discouraged Americans from congregating in “large events with lots of people” on the Fourth of July. Even worse, the White House barbecue party was arranged at a time that can hardly be deemed auspicious, as the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant raised the alarm of more infections and deaths.

The CDC said the Delta variant is now responsible for more than one in four US infections, largely among not fully vaccinated people.

Public health experts like Tom Frieden, former CDC director, expressed the fear that with the continuous circulation of the Delta variant, even those who have been fully vaccinated may become vulnerable in the face of new virus mutations.

Meanwhile, federal and local officials have been sending conflicting messages on masking vis-a-vis the threat posed by the Delta variant, with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky insisting that fully vaccinated people are safe and do not need to wear masks, while Los Angeles County officials suggesting otherwise, recommending that even vaccinated people wear face coverings indoors.

“I do think that we’re jumping the gun,” Ezekiel Emanuel, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying when commenting on the White House’s July 4th celebration. - Xinhua.