Joe Biden says 'resist becoming numb to sorrow' after US reached 500,000 Covid deaths

US President Joe Biden commemorated the deaths of 500,000 Americans due to coronavirus. The ceremony was joined by the First lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff in the White House South Portico. Biden from the White House said, "We have to resist becoming numb from the sorrow". Biden hailed the 'strong' individuals that fought the battle with the illness to the last.

Resist seeing each 'life as statistic'

President Joe Biden from the white house said, "We have to resist viewing each life as statistic or a blur or on the news." He added, "We must do so to honour the dead, but equally important, care for the living and those left behind." In a speech he made outside the white house, the US president said, "I ask all Americans to remember those we lost and remember those who are left behind. We have to fight Covid together". Biden also hailed the 'strong' individuals that fought the battle with the illness to the last.

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Pain of families who lost loved ones

President Joe Biden while describing the pain of the loss of a loved one said, "For the loved ones left behind, I know all too well. I know what it's like to not be there when it happens. I know what it's like when you are there holding their hands, there's a look in their eye and they slip away. I know that when you stare at that empty chair around the kitchen table it brings it all back no matter how long ago it happened as if it just happened that moment. The birthdays, the anniversaries, the holidays without them. And the everyday things the small things, that you miss the most".

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President Joe Biden said that his heart aches for those who are going through the pain. From the White House, he also encouraged people by saying, "The nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again". Ahead of the Monday evening’s vigil, Biden issued a presidential proclamation saying that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic had exceeded far more than the casualties suffered in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War, combined.