COVID leaves lasting scars as Biden marks first year in office
Al JazeeraVictims’ families say they are still grappling with deep pain as US President Joe Biden vows to keep fighting the coronavirus. “For many of us, it’s been too much to bear,” Biden said during a news conference at the White House on the eve of his presidency’s official one-year mark on Thursday. “We’re in a very different place now, though; we have the tools, vaccines, boosters, masks, tests, pills.” On Biden’s inauguration day last year, cases and deaths linked to COVID-19 were soaring in the US and vaccines were still in short supply. Forty-five percent of Americans said they approve of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, down from 57 percent a month ago, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on Thursday. “I don’t know of anyone who developed serious illness due to COVID who is vaccinated,” said Dr Nate Link, chief medical officer at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.