More Americans

Each day, I receive a small card in my pocket that I carry with me in my schedule.  It shows the number of Americans who have been infected by or died from COVID-19.  Today, we mark a truly grim, heartbreaking milestone: 500,071 dead.  That's more Americans who have died in one year in this pandemic than in World War One, World War Two, and the Vietnam War combined.  That's more lives lost to this virus than any other nation on Earth. 

We often hear people described as "ordinary Americans."  There's no such thing; there's nothing ordinary about them.  The people we lost were extraordinary.  They spanned generations.  Born in America.  Immigrated to America.  But just like that, so many of them took their final breath alone in America.

So today, I ask all Americans to remember: Remember those we lost and those who are left behind.

This nation will smile again.  This nation will know sunny days again.  This nation will know joy again.  And as we do, we will remember each person we've lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind.  We will get through this, I promise you.  But my heart aches for you -- those of you who are going through it right now. 

-- President Biden, in remarks on the more than 500,000 American lives lost to COVID-19, 22 February 2021