WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden delivered a somber but optimistic message on the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic in his first prime-time address.
Speaking from a lectern in a flag-draped backdrop in the East Room of the White House, Biden is reflecting on the worst public health crisis in more than a century. It has killed nearly 530,000 Americans, sickened millions more and ravaged the global economy.
Biden says, “We all lost something, a collective suffering, a collective sacrifice.”
He also condemned the violence Asian Americans have endured since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, saying “it is wrong, it is un-American and it must stop.”
Biden is lamenting an uptick of reports of “vicious” attacks and harassment against Asian Americans that’s been reported since the start of the pandemic one year ago.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly used xenophobic terms to refer to the virus that originated in China’s Wuhan province. Some critics say the former president’s language has stoked the violence against Asian Americans.