Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Friday that Americans are not learning to live with COVID-19, but they are learning to die with it as the pandemic has dwarfed everything the country faced in recent history and shows no signs. deceleration.
More than 220,000 Americans have lost their lives, accounting for more than a fifth of total global deaths, Biden said in a major political address on the coronavirus, a day after his final presidential debate with Republican President Donald Trump.
Biden, in his speech in his home state of Delaware, blamed Trump’s policies for the deadly spread of the virus that has had a devastating impact on the country’s economy.
“President Trump said that we are just around the corner, that it is leaving, that we are learning to live with it. They are quotes. But like I told you last night, we are not learning to live with it. We are learning to die with it. A dark winter awaits us, ”said Biden, 77.
“Already more than 220,000 people in the United States have lost their lives to this virus. Worse still, a new study from Columbia University suggests that between 130,000 and 210,000 of those deaths were preventable, “he said.
“Covid-19 dwarfs everything we have faced in recent history and shows no sign of slowing down. The virus is increasing in almost every state. We passed 4.8 million cases. And when Trump was asked this week what he would do differently to get the answer to the pandemic early on, his response was and I quote: ‘Not much. Not much, ‘”the former vice president said.
Claiming that Trump does not have a plan to combat the coronavirus, Biden said the longer he is president, the more “reckless” he becomes.
“We do not have to be prisoners of the failures of this administration. We can choose a different path. We can do what Americans have always done: come together and meet the challenge with courage, compassion and determination, ”he said.
Revealing his plan, if elected to power in November, Biden said he would immediately launch a national strategy that will position the country to finally get ahead of this virus and recover lives.
Biden said he will ask the new Congress to put a bill on its desk by the end of January with all the necessary resources to see how both the public health and the economic response can be viewed until the end of what is needed.
Biden said he will go to all governors and urge them to demand the wearing of masks in their states. “And if they refuse, I will go to the mayors and county executives and establish local masking requirements across the country,” he said, adding that as president he will require the use of masks in all federal buildings and on all interstate transportation.
“Because masks save lives,” he said, adding that he will launch a national testing plan with the goal of testing as many people each day as they currently do each week. The Democratic presidential candidate said the vaccine would be free and available to everyone.
Describing this as a Biden-Harris agenda, he said that all Americans will work together. “And that’s not hyperbole, we all work together, taking care of each other. We will all have to wear a mask or practice social distancing for a while longer. It’s going to be difficult, ”he said.
“But if we follow the science and keep the faith in each other, I promise you that we will get through this and get out the other side much faster than we are going now. Look, everyone knows it: the American people have always done their best for this country in times of crisis. And this time it is no different, “he added.
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