Biden urges Americans to help end pandemic

Biden speaks during Independence Day celebrations on the South Lawn of the White House.

US President Joe Biden celebrated the nation’s 245th birthday on Sunday by opening the gates of the White House and calling on Americans to do their part to end the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic once and for all.“This year, the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging from the darkness of ... a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss,” he told a White House party opened to around 1,000 people, including military families and workers involved in the Covid-19 response.“Over the last year, we have lived through some of our darkest days,” Biden said. “We are about to see our brightest future.”“We never again want to be where we were a year ago today,” he added.The largest White House event since Biden took office in January included burgers and fireworks and was geared toward giving Americans something to celebrate as signs of normalcy have returned following a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans.Still, the country has fallen short of Biden’s goal to have 70% of US adults get at least one vaccine shot by Sunday.The figure is around 67%, as some people have resisted getting inoculated, raising concerns among officials as the more aggressive Delta variant threatens to generate another surge.Public health officials are eyeing swaths of rural America where hospitals are starting to fill up again, especially in Utah, Missouri, Arkansas and Wyoming.Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, told NBC that unvaccinated people now account for 99.2% of Covid-19 deaths.“Two hundred and forty five years ago, we declared our independence from a distant king,” Biden said at the White House event. “Today, we are closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.”“We’ve gained the upper hand against this virus,” he continued, but warned: “Don’t get me wrong: Covid-19 has not been vanquished. We all know powerful variants have emerged, like the Delta variant.”The president mourned the people who died, praised Americans who aided in the country’s emergency response, and said that vaccines were the best defence against new variants of the coronavirus.“It’s the most patriotic thing you can do,” he said of getting vaccinated.However, his administration was also eager to celebrate what it sees as its signature accomplishment – restoring some normality for a country weary of pandemic restrictions and hardship, burdens that have eased but not disappeared with the widespread availability of inoculations.The pandemic forced cancellation of nearly all celebrations last year and led to a toned-down January inauguration for the Democratic president, who had to do without traditional black-tie galas and bipartisan comity as Republican former president Donald Trump disputed his election loss.Fortress-like security around Washington following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol was eased as crowds marked the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776.Fencing surrounding the White House has been dramatically scaled back, and the streets filled on Sunday with people who snapped photographs of the president’s motorcade returning from a weekend trip to a Michigan cherry farm, the golf course and his Delaware family home.Speaking to people on the south lawn of the White House who had shed their masks to eat watermelon slices and drink beer, Biden said the coronavirus “no longer paralyses our nation, and it’s in our power to make sure it never does again”.After the speech, the president greeted guests and posed for photographs ahead of a 17-minute fireworks display to be set off later from both sides of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.The fireworks smoke will have barely cleared before Biden has to return to a complex political fight for the survival of his legislative agenda this summer.Negotiations continue on a bipartisan infrastructure deal and fractious debate within his Democratic Party looms on a much broader spending package that has no support from Republicans.The president visited a cherry farm in Michigan on Saturday to tout a positive June employment report hailed as a sign of America’s economic resurgence.In his speech on the South Lawn, Biden said the country was on the move again. “We’re seeing record job creation and record economic growth – the best in four decades and, I might add, the best in the world.”The administration also sent cabinet secretaries and other officials to sports events, cookouts and festivals nationwide as part of its “America’s Back Together” celebration.And the White House – at least outwardly – continues to brim with confidence.Six in 10 respondents in a new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News give Biden positive ratings for his handling of the pandemic.