Try to honor the loss: Why CNN broadcasted a national memorial service for 500,000 lives lost by Covid-19

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More than 500,000 Americans have been killed by Covid. More than 500,000 lives cut short by a pandemic that the rest of us will never forget. Journalists reach for words, illustrations and images to meet the magnitude of the moment.
As Pien Huang of the NPR wrote Monday, “It was unimaginable that half a million lives were lost from this disease when the first few people died from COVID-19 in the US last February.”

Huang quoted Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, a former president of the American Public Health Association, who said, “The sheer number and loss of those people from our society has not been recognized. We cannot think that these people are disposable and unnecessary and that we cannot do it. just really good without them. It’s those kind of blinders that undermine the strength of all of society. “

President Biden and his administration have done their best to acknowledge the loss with a tribute and a candlelit moment of silence in the White House on Monday at nightfall. The broadcasting networks released it live, along with the major cable news networks. Several broadcasts showed the victims’ faces and personalized the unfathomable loss.

“Please don’t look away from this and don’t get stunned by the pandemic,” CNN’s Lisa Respers France, who contributes daily to this newsletter, tweeted on Monday. Lisa’s father died last week. She wrote, “My dad and my uncle are featured in this song and it’s a pain I don’t wish anyone. Death always hurts, but it’s excruciating when you know it doesn’t have to be.”

You are not alone.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar “broke into the air” as “shared tragic clips of those who lost family members to Covid-19 – urging viewers to remember the lives lost even as they are ‘drained’ and ‘tired’ from the pandemic Mediaite’s Leia Idliby wrote.
‘I know it is difficult. I hear it from so many of you, ”said Keilar. “I know you’re tired. I know you’re being bugged. It’s been over a year since the first reported coronavirus case. The quarantine, hoping this would go away to realize it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.” struggling to make ends meet, worrying that if this is the day you get a fever or start coughing, juggling your job while homeschooling your kids, being afraid to see your grandparents, being afraid of your grandchildren Knowing there is a vaccine that you and your loved ones cannot get yet, are struggling with mental health And for nearly 500,000 Americans lost their lives in the past year This is a collective loss We are taking this moment to acknowledge that You You’re not alone. And if you’re lucky enough to have a little bit of fuel in your tank today, it’s a good day to remind someone in your life that you’re there for them. “

Faith, reflection, healing

CNN broadcast “We Remember 500,000: A National Memorial Service for Covid-19” Monday. I asked host Jake Tapper how the one-hour special program came about. “Last spring, given the government’s refusal to acknowledge the momentous loss our nation was suffering, a good friend of mine suggested that CNN fill that gap,” Tapper replied. “That was for 100,000 Covid deaths in the US.” (The special aired on Sunday, May 31.)

“Tragically, we’ve reached another gruesome and heartbreaking milestone, 500,000. So it made even more sense to take a moment to try to honor the loss and perhaps find community and perhaps even greater meaning in faith and reflection.” , said Tapper. “As always, I am grateful to work at a news network and for a boss who allows such moments.”

We will never know the total death toll

During Monday’s briefing of the Covid response team, a reporter raised the fact that “some officials and health experts have said that we are almost certainly undercounting COVID-19 deaths in this country.” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky confirmed that, “I think when history writes this, we will understand that the mortality associated with this pandemic is far greater than the numbers we have been counting, for a variety of reasons.”

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