A4 The BulleTin • Monday, July 5, 2021
Independence Day
Biden: U.S. ‘coming back,’ but COVID not finished
BY ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — After nearly six
months in office, grappling with a pan-
demic every step of that way, President
Joe Biden was determined to party.
“Today, all across this nation, we
can say with confidence: America is
coming back together,” Biden declared
Sunday as he hosted more than 1,000
guests for a July Fourth celebration on
the South Lawn of the White House.
Biden wanted all Americans to cel-
ebrate, too, after enduring 16 months
of disruption in the pandemic and
more than 605,000 deaths. The White
House encouraged gatherings and
fireworks displays all around the
country to mark — as though ripped
from a Hollywood script — the na-
tion’s “independence” from the virus.
And there is much to cheer: Cases
and deaths from COVID-19 are at or
near record lows since the outbreak
began, thanks to the robust U.S. vac-
cination program. Businesses and
restaurants are open, hiring is pick-
ing up and travel is getting closer to
pre-pandemic levels.
Still, it’s hardly a “Mission Accom-
plished” moment. More than 200
Americans still die each day from
COVID-19, a more infectious vari-
ant of the virus is spreading rapidly
at home and abroad, and tens of mil-
lions of Americans have chosen not to
get the lifesaving vaccines.
“If you’ve had the vaccine, you’re
doing great,” said Dr. Mati Hlatsh-
wayo Davis, an infectious disease
physician at the John Cochran VA
Medical Center and St. Louis Board
of Health. “If you haven’t had the vac-
cine, you should be alarmed and that’s
just the bottom line, there’s no easy
way to cut it.”
“But that doesn’t take away from
the fact that this country is in a sig-
nificantly better place,” she said.
‘Closer than ever’ —
but a goal is missed
For Biden it was a long-awaited op-
portunity to highlight the success of
the vaccination campaign he cham-
pioned. Sunday’s South Lawn event
was the largest yet of his presidency,
the clearest indication yet that the U.S.
has moved into a new phase of virus
response. Shifting from a national
emergency to a localized crisis of in-
dividual responsibility, the nation also
moved from vaccinating Americans
to promoting global health.
“This year the Fourth of July is a
day of special celebration, for we’re
emerging from the darkness of a year
of pandemic and isolation, a year of
pain fear and heartbreaking loss,” the
president said before fireworks lit up
the sky over the National Mall.
Noting the lockdowns that shut-
tered businesses, put millions out of
work and separated untold numbers
of families, Biden said, “Today we’re
closer than ever to declaring our in-
dependence from a deadly virus.
That’s not to say the battle against
COVID-19 is over. We’ve got a lot
more work to do.”
Indeed, the president has come up
short of the vaccination goal he had set
for the Fourth with great fanfare. Biden
had hoped to have 70% of the adult
population vaccinated by Sunday, but
clocked in at about 67%, according to
figures from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Officials in-
sisted that the miss would have little
practical effect on Americans’ ability to
mark the Independence Day holiday.
What concerns them more is the
emergence of two disparate realities
“Today, all
across this
nation, we
can say with
confidence:
America is
coming back
together.”
— President Joe Biden,
before a crowd of 1,000
guests at a July Fourth
celebration on the South
Lawn of the White House
on Sunday
Patrick Semansky/AP
President Joe Biden poses for a photo with (from left) granddaugh-
ter Finnegan Biden, first lady Jill Biden, granddaughter Naomi
Biden and daughter Ashley Biden as they view fireworks on the
South Lawn of the White House on Sunday.
U.S. ready to deploy booster shots if needed, White House says
The U.S. government is ready to deploy booster shots if scientists and health offi-
cials determine they’re needed in the fight against COVID-19, White House pandemic
response coordinator Jeff Zients said.
After a historic vaccination drive, the U.S. fell short of Biden’s goal of getting at least
one dose to 70% of adults by Independence Day. The nationwide number was 67%
on Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While about a third of American adults haven’t gotten even a first dose, Zients said
the administration is ready for a booster-shot campaign if scientists and doctors con-
clude it’s necessary. “We are prepared,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We will
have the supply and the distribution, if it’s determined that booster shots are in fact
needed.”
Top dog: Joey Chestnut sets new record at hot dog contest
STRF/STAR MAX/IPx/AP
The crowd at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, a July Fourth tradition, in
Coney Island, New York.
in the U.S.: the gap between heavily
vaccinated communities where the vi-
rus is dying out and lesser-vaccinated
ones where the new delta variant is al-
ready taking hold.
About 1,000 counties have a vacci-
nation rate below 30%, and the fed-
eral government is warning that they
could become the next hot spots as vi-
rus restrictions ease.
“The best defense against these vari-
ants is to get vaccinated,” Biden said at
the White House, calling vaccination
“the most patriotic thing you can do.”
To that end the administration is
sending “surge” teams to Colorado and
Missouri. Additional squads of infec-
tious disease experts, public health pro-
fessionals and doctors and nurses are
getting ready to assist in additional lo-
cations with a combination of low vac-
cination rates and rising cases.
Overall, the vastly improved Amer-
ican landscape stands in stark contrast
with much of the rest of the world,
where there remain vast vaccine des-
erts and wide community spread that
could open the door to even more
dangerous variants. The Biden admin-
istration is increasingly turning the
federal response to the complicated lo-
gistics of sending excess U.S. vaccines
abroad in an effort to assist other na-
tions in beating back the pandemic.
When asked about the potential
risks of holding gatherings around
July Fourth in areas where there are
large pockets of unvaccinated individ-
WORLD BRIEFING
Pope hospitalized for
intestinal surgery
Pope Francis was hospital-
ized in Rome on Sunday after-
noon for scheduled surgery on
his large intestine, the Vatican
said. The news came just three
hours after Francis had cheer-
fully greeted the public in St.
Peter’s Square and told them he
will go to Hungary and Slova-
kia in September.
It was the pope’s first known
hospital treatment since he was
elected to the papacy in 2013.
The Vatican said the
84-year-old pope had been di-
agnosed with “symptomatic
diverticular stenosis of the co-
lon,” a reference to a narrowing
in the large intestine.
Francis is in generally good
health, but did have part of one
lung removed as a young man.
He also suffers from sciatica,
in which a nerve affects the
lower back and leg, a painful
condition that has forced him
Patrick Semansky/AP
People gather on a section of Pennsylvania Avenue that was reopened to the public on Sunday.
at times to skip scheduled ap-
pearances.
A 10th-floor papal suite is
kept available at the hospital in
case of need.
Taliban seize areas from
fleeing Afghan troops
The Taliban’s march through
northern Afghanistan gained
momentum overnight with
the capture of several districts
from fleeing Afghan forces,
several hundred of whom fled
across the border into Tajiki-
stan, officials said Sunday.
More than 300 Afghan mil-
itary personnel crossed from
Afghanistan’s Badakhshan
province as Taliban fighters
advanced toward the border,
Tajikistan’s State Committee
for National Security said in a
statement. The Afghan troops
crossed over at about 6:30 p.m.
local time Saturday
“Guided by the principles of
humanism and good neigh-
borliness,” the Tajik authorities
allowed the retreating Afghan
National Defense and Security
Forces to cross into Tajikistan,
said the statement
Since mid-April, when Pres-
ident Joe Biden announced the
end to Afghanistan’s “forever
war,” the Taliban have made
strides throughout the country.
But their most significant gains
have been in the northern half
of the country, a traditional
stronghold of the U.S.-allied
warlords who helped defeat
them in 2001. The Taliban now
control roughly a third of all
421 districts and district cen-
ters in Afghanistan.
The areas under Taliban
control in the north are in-
creasingly strategic, running
along Afghanistan’s border
with central Asian states. Tal-
iban spokesman Zabihullah
Mujahid confirmed the fall
of the districts and said most
were without a fight.
—Bulletin wire reports
Chowdown champ Joey “Jaws” Chestnut broke his own record to gulp to a 14th win
in the men’s Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Sunday, while Michelle Le-
sco took the women’s title.
Chestnut downed 76 franks and buns in 10 minutes. That’s one more than he did in
setting the men’s record last year, when the contest unfolded without fans because of
the coronavirus pandemic. “It just felt good,” Chestnut, of Westfield, Indiana, said in an
ESPN interview after his win Sunday. “Even if I was uncomfortable, having everybody
cheer me and push me, it made me feel good.”
Lesco, of Tucson, Arizona, downed 30¾ dogs in 10 minutes and called her win “an
amazing feeling.”
The annual Fourth of July frankfurter fest normally happens outside Nathan’s flag-
ship shop in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood. But this year’s planning took
place amid shifting coronavirus restrictions, and the event was held in a nearby minor
league baseball stadium, Maimonides Park, with 5,000 spectators.
— Bulletin wire reports
uals, White House press secretary Jen
Psaki has countered that “if individu-
als are vaccinated in those areas, then
they are protected.”
Service members and first respond-
ers were special guests for the cookout
and fireworks viewing at the South
Lawn. The outdoor event “is being
done in the right way,” White House
COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff
Zients said in television interviews,
and “consistent” with CDC guidelines.
The White House was not requiring
vaccinations but was asking guests to
get a COVID-19 test and to wear a
mask if they are not fully vaccinated.