Pandemic, racism cast shadow on July 4 celebrations

For US President Joe Biden, Independence Day that fell on Sunday served as an occasion for his administration to declare the country's "independence" from COVID-19 and that "America's back together".

"This year, the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging from the darkness of … a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss," Biden told a White House party.

Some 1,000 largely unmasked people were invited by the first family to an Independence Day party on the White House South Lawn. The first large public event hosted by the Biden White House was intended to proclaim that life in the United States has returned to normal.

Those attending the event were not required to prove they are vaccinated. The more relaxed protocols stand in stark contrast to remarks made by Biden in a televised address in March, when the US president discouraged people from any plans to congregate in "large events with lots of people "on the Fourth of July holiday.

Fortresslike security around Washington following the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol was eased as crowds marked the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776. Fencing surrounding the White House has been dramatically scaled back.

While the US is making progress in immunizing its people against the coronavirus, the spread of the more contagious Delta variant indicates that it is too early for the White House to declare complete victory against the pandemic.

Moreover, the country fell short of Biden's goal to have had 70 percent of people get at least one vaccine shot by Sunday, as some people have resisted getting inoculated, raising concerns among health officials.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, 54.9 percent of adults in the US have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The pandemic has killed more than 600,000 people in the country.

Mental health strains

Also, a growing number of people, including children as young as 8, are seeking mental-health care in hospital emergency rooms nationwide due to the high anxiety unleashed by the pandemic.

From early in the health crisis, doctors have been worried by the pandemic's effect on people's mental health. The number of emergency room visits by people who had overdosed or attempted suicide increased between mid-March and mid-October 2020 to 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively, figures from the US Government Accountability Office showed in March.

Doctors reported that many patients experiencing severe mental health issues during the pandemic have delayed seeking treatment or went undiagnosed.

"If someone is really suffering (it's important that they) reach out for help," Michi Fu, a licensed psychologist in California and Hawaii, told China Daily.

As for Biden's notion that people are coming back together as a nation, many believe that is wishful thinking. They point to polarizing factors such as the enduring divisions around race, despite the conviction and sentencing of a white former police officer for the murder of African American George Floyd in May last year.

"As Americans celebrate July 4 in 2021, our racial and political divisions are so stark that many African Americans and other minority groups of color feel as (19th-century American social reformer Frederick) Douglass did when he bluntly stated that 'the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker'," an opinion article in Athens Banner-Herald, a newspaper in Athens, Georgia, lamented on Sunday.

Xinhua, Agencies and Belinda Robinson in New York contributed to this story.