Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has vowed to go to any lengths in order to fight the spread of COVID-19 in the US.
“I would shut it [the country] down; I would listen to the scientists. We’re going to do whatever it takes to save lives”, Biden told ABC News on Friday.
In his first joint interview alongside running mate Kamala Harris, Biden underscored that the US government “cannot get the country moving” until it takes control of the coronavirus.
“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”, the former vice president underscored.
In a subsequent keynote speech at the gathering, he specifically lashed out at the Trump administration over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on how the US can rebuild after the COVID-19 crisis.
Biden pledged to address the pandemic on day one of his presidency, stressing that he would "take the muzzle off our experts" and implement a mandate to wear masks as "a patriotic duty to protect one another”.
“As president, the first step I will take will be to get control of the virus that's ruined so many lives. Because I understand something this president doesn't. We will never get our economy back on track, we will never get our kids safely back to school, we will never have our lives back, until we deal with this virus”, he told the DNC.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly opposed calls to shut down the US again due to deadly COVID-19 spikes in many states this summer, claiming that a new national lockdown would ride roughshod over the economy.
"We won't be closing the country again. We won't have to do that”, Trump said in an interview with Fox News in June.
According to Johns Hopkins University’s latest estimates, the coronavirus had infected more than 5.6 million people and killed at least 175,000 in the US as of Friday evening.
