Biden says he is willing to ‘shut down’ US to contain Covid-19
Democratic candidate vows to follow advice of scientists if elected in November
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would “shut down” the country if elected president to stop the spread of coronavirus if scientists recommended it.
“I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving, until we control the virus,” said Mr Biden in an interview with ABC to be aired on Sunday evening.
“That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.”
When asked if he would be willing to shut the country down if that was recommended by scientists, Mr Biden replied: “I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists.”
Mr Biden was interviewed alongside vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, in their first joint television appearance. ABC released clips of the interview on Friday and Saturday.
When asked what she thought about insults directed at her by Donald Trump, Ms Harris said they were “designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day.”
“That is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American people,” she added.
Democrats have attacked Mr Trump’s handling of the coronavirus throughout the convention. Mr Biden on Thursday said the president had presided over “the worst performance of any nation on earth” when it came to containing the pandemic.
While formally accepting the Democratic nomination on Thursday evening, Mr Biden pledged that if elected he would “take the muzzle off our experts” to ensure that the public received accurate information about the situation.
The US leads the world in deaths from Covid-19, with the virus having killed more than 167,262 Americans as of Friday, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
The pandemic has also triggered mass unemployment, with new claims for unemployment benefits rising back above 1m last week, as the pace of lay-offs picked up again.
The White House and congressional Democrats are locked in a stand-off over an extension of the proposed stimulus bill to prop up the US economy, with Republicans pushing to slash the amount of emergency jobless benefits.