President Joe Biden is condemning 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.
Biden is addressing the nation on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.
President Joe Biden is delivering a somber but optimistic message on the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic.
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.”
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6:40 p.m.
President Joe Biden is planning to announce during his prime-time address Thursday night that he’ll deploy 4,000 additional U.S. troops to support coronavirus vaccination efforts. He’s also vastly expanding the pool of people who are eligible to serve as vaccinators.
That’s according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters ahead of Biden’s address to the nation. The official says the president will also announce plans to double the number of pharmacies participating in the vaccination program, expand mobile operations to vaccinate people in communities that have been hard-hit by the virus, and double the number of federally run mass vaccination centers.
There are currently 2,000 active-duty troops supporting vaccination efforts around the country.
The official says the White House plans to detail plans on Friday to expand who can administer shots. Dentists, paramedics, physician assistants, veterinarians and medical students will become eligible to administer vaccinations under the new guidance.