President Joe Biden plans to honor the 500,000 Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 – including some 60,000-plus people who’ve died since he took office barely a month ago – with a moment of silence, marking the solemn milestone in a pandemic he once vowed to halt in its tracks.
According to this, the newly-inaugurated president, who spent months on the campaign trail criticizing President Trump for failing to get the airborne virus under control during his time in office, will commemorate the event on Monday night, the day the U.S. is expected to cross over half a million deaths since the start of the pandemic early last year.
“In the evening, the President will deliver remarks on the lives lost to COVID-19 in the Cross Hall. The First Lady, the Vice President, and the Second Gentleman will be in attendance,” the White House said in a statement.
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Given that roughly 400,000 Americans had died from COVID-19 by the time Biden took the oath of office on January 20, basic math shows an estimated 100,000 more have died in just the 30 days since - more than 3,000 people per day.
The tragic mile-marker comes after Biden, having promised repeatedly before Election Day that he had a “plan” to “defeat the coronavirus,” admitted shortly after taking office that “there was nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the virus in the next few months,” and admitting that his previously touted, vague plan to have the nation's public schools reopened in the first 100 days of his administration actually meant having at least half of all schools open for in person learning a mere one day a week.
Related: Biden's 'Plan': Have Half of America's Public Schools Open 1 Day a Week By...April
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)