Biden sees virus ‘independence,’ but Covid-19 takes no holiday

GBNEWS24 DESK//

After nearly six months in office, grappling with a pandemic every step of the way, US President Joe Biden was determined to party.

“This is a holiday weekend,” Biden declared on Friday as he parried journalists’ “negative” questions about the ongoing US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, “I’m going to be celebrating it.”

Biden wants Americans to celebrate too, after enduring 16 months of disruption in the pandemic and more than 605,000 deaths. The White House encouraged gatherings and fireworks displays all around the country to mark – as though ripped from a Hollywood script – the nation’s “independence” from the virus.

And there is much to cheer about: Cases and deaths from Covid-19 are at or near record lows since the outbreak began, thanks to the robust US vaccination program. Businesses and restaurants are open, hiring is picking up and travel is getting closer to pre-pandemic levels.

Still, it’s hardly a “mission accomplished” moment. More than 200 Americans still die each day from Covid-19, a more infectious variant of the virus is spreading rapidly at home and abroad, and tens of millions of Americans have chosen not to get the lifesaving vaccines.

“If you’ve had the vaccine, you’re doing great,” said Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, an infectious disease physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center and St. Louis Board of Health. “If you haven’t had the vaccine, you should be alarmed and that’s just the bottom line, there’s no easy way to cut it.”

“But that doesn’t take away from the fact that this country is in a significantly better place,” she said.