In Pictures: Art installation commemorates American lives lost from virus with planting of white flags

White flags representing the number of Americans who have died of Covid-19 at the D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in Washington, D.C. A vaccine to help control the coronavirus outbreak isn’t likely to be available in the U.S. until January, if then, according to Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease doctor.

Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg walks among thousands of white flags planted in remembrance of Americans who have died of COVID-19, near Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. Firstenberg’s temporary art installation, called “In America, How Could This Happen,” will include an estimated 240,000 flags when completed.

Firstenberg encourages visitors to plant flags in honor of their lost loved ones (they can write names on the flags as well). The art installation will be up at RFK Stadium for two weeks through November 6.

Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg stands among thousands of white flags planted in remembrance of Americans who have died of COVID-19.

Volunteer Dean Holt adds white flags to a temporary art installation in remembrance of Americans who have died of COVID-19. In a breeze, the ankle-high flags ripple, rise and flap, each in its own way. "Like souls," said Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, 61, the artist behind the growing, powerful commemoration she's building outside RFK Stadium, at the edge of D.C.'s Capitol Hill.

Signs encouraging protective masks and social distancing in front of white flags representing the number of Americans who have died of Covid-19 at the D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in Washington.

"How can you not stop and look?" said Kenneth Nguyen, 31, as he pulled over his motorcycle at the edge of the installation and began taking pictures. His cousin survived the virus. But it was rough.

Firstenberg has been simmering for months about how the leaders have handled the pandemic. As early as March, when Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested that older Americans should sacrifice their lives to the virus for the sake of the economy, she knew the result would be devastating. She's volunteered in hospice care for decades. "My hospice patients and their families taught me the importance of dignity," she said. And as the pandemic restrictions left seniors dying alone and families unable to gather and grieve, and with the numbers of the dead mounting beyond anything our nation has seen, she struggled with a way to explain the scope of the indignity and tragedy.

"Words no longer matter," she said in the early-morning fog when she resumed the flag planting at daybreak. "I had to find a way for people to get a better perspective." She decided on white flags to represent the innocence of victims. And she bought more than 200,000 at a dime a piece. (Materials aren't cheap for this one.)

"I know how valuable each life is because I've had the opportunity — the honour — to be with people at a challenging time in their lives, as they're saying goodbye," Firstenberg said. Above, a volunteer adds white flags to a temporary art installation in remembrance of Americans who have died of COVID-19.

"Miss You!" is written on one of the white flags representing the number of Americans who have died of Covid-19 at the D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in Washington.