Biden Reflects On 500,000 U.S. Dead From COVID-19 At White House Candlelight Vigil

In a personal statement released from the White House Monday, President Joe Biden called the United State’s surpassing of 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 a “truly grim, heartbreaking milestone.”

In a raw, poetic moment Biden said on the loss of a family member “the birthdays, the anniversaries, the holidays without them. And the everyday things — the small things, the tiny things — that you miss the most: that scent when you open the closet, that park that you go by that you used to stroll in. That movie theater where you met. That morning coffee that you shared together.”

Joe, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff were part of a candlelight vigil after Biden’s statement, grimly similar to the vigil held when the United States reached 400,000 COVID-19 deaths just months ago.

“Today I ask all Americans to remember, remember those we lost, those we left behind. But as we all remember, I also ask us to act, to remain vigilant, to stay socially distant, to mask up. Get vaccinated when it’s your turn. We must end the politics and misinformation that has divided families, communities and the country and has cost too many lives already,” said Biden. Reaffirming his call for unity, the president then said “It’s not Democrats and Republicans who are dying from the virus; it’s our fellow Americans.”

Biden said in a town hall last Monday that everyone in the United States could likely be vaccinated by July.