As part of an art installation, demonstrators from the group “COVID Survivors for Change”, set up 20,000 empty chairs across from the White House on Sunday, representing about 10% of the more than 200,000 Americans who have died after contracting the COVID 19.
“COVID Survivors for Change”, a group of survivors and the families of those who died from COVID 19, said they organized the sea of chairs and a remembrance ceremony to mourn their loss before news broke that President Trump himself tested positive with COVID 19 and was briefly hospitalized.
The event was livestreamed from The Ellipse lawn, where one chair for every 10 people who died in the U.S. from COVID-19 was set up by volunteers within view of the White House.
The nearly three-hour video included the names and photos of many of those who died. Speakers discussed their shared experiences with COVID-19, including balancing child care while working as first responders and other economic struggles coupled with the disease itself. Some spoke of the experience of being put on a respirator, while others who lost relatives wondered aloud whether they were the ones to bring the virus with them into their homes.
Pastor William H. Lamar IV, an opening speaker at the event, said:
“I want the president and all with COVID to be well, but I also have to place responsibility upon the president and other leaders who have not taken this seriously,… There is blood on the hands of those who refuse to do what is necessary to protect human beings.”
Source of information: – FOX news – NBC –
