Since late spring, the Center for Popular Democracy has been engaging families who lost loved ones due to COVID-19 to demand accountability and justice in the pandemic response. This campaign, known as COVID Families, officially launched on Friday, August 21, where hundreds of people came together to March for the Dead in New York City. 

Together, we marched through downtown Brooklyn, participated in a silent candlelit walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and held a reading of names lost to COVID-19 at Foley Square in Manhattan. 

Individual organizers from Rise and Resist, March for Truth, NYIC, MoveOn, and several Indivisible chapters came together to organize the event, while CPD affiliates CUFFH and NYCC endorsed the action. CPD helped to nationalize the event and sparked actions with affiliates like Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement, Arkansas Community Organization and Alaskans Take a Stand (formerly known as Alaska Grassroots Alliance), and independent events in Wisconsin, Maine, San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

To date, 185,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and those are only the confirmed cases on record. These numbers are devastating, especially as we watch the Trump administration avoid responsibility for containing the spread of COVID-19. Trump’s incompetence, malice, and inaction has led us here and he must be held accountable.  

Click here to share your story and get involved with COVID Families.