Biden for President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2020

Statement from Vice President Joe Biden on Immediate Actions the Trump Administration Must Take to Address the Public Health Crisis

My heart goes out to all Americans who are suffering from the outbreak of the novel coronavirus — those who are sick, those who are caring for others, those who have lost loved ones, those who cannot spend time with family members due to social distancing, and those who are already dealing with the economic fallout. 

I'm so proud of Americans across the country who are driving a community-led response, despite the sacrifices and hardship that can entail, and by helping their neighbors. The people of this country know how to answer the call in a crisis. They know that now is a time for empathy, decency, and unity.

The Congress is hard at work at economic measures to help working people, families, and seniors cope with the economic blow. So many governors, mayors, and other local officials on the front lines of the pandemic are making tough decisions to protect their communities and modeling the leadership we need from our elected officials. They deserve a partner in the White House.

Much has been made of changes in the President’s tone in recent days. But with our health care system at risk, a virus spreading, our economy on the brink — and so many lives at stake — it’s time to be less interested in the President’s words and more focused on his actions — or inaction.

Here’s what President Trump needs to do, immediately:

First, he must institute a transparent reporting process regarding testing. While it's good that the number of tests are increasing, it's not good enough. Other countries have had the tests they've needed, when they've needed them. The United States hasn't — and still doesn't. Last week, I called for the Administration to report every single day on how many tests have been ordered, how many have been conducted, and how many have produced positive results. That reporting still is not happening. It must. 

Second, President Trump must take action to expand the number of beds and facilities ready to accept sick patients. Last week, I called for using our Department of Defense resources and the deployment of the National Guard, if necessary, to help support the response. I'm proud to see governors taking this step and acting in the interests of their communities. And I'm pleased that the Pentagon announced yesterday that it is opening its labs, prepping its hospital ships, and making equipment like respirator masks and ventilators available. The Trump Administration should act now to prepare for the deployment of beds and facilities.

Third, President Trump must surge medical personnel to the places that need it most and make sure these personnel and first responders are equipped to more safely do their jobs. As I called for last week, this should include expanding and mobilizing the Medical Reserve Corps, which consists of nearly 200,000 volunteer health care professionals who stand ready to serve across America. And, this should include standing up a reserve Corps for the U.S. Public Health Service so we have the medical and public health expertise available to deploy to areas of need. It should also include adapting FEMA just-in-time training for first responders through the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, the Center for Domestic Preparedness, and the Emergency Management Institute. And all of our medical personnel and first responders should have the personal protective equipment they need to ensure they can do their jobs safely and effectively.

This leads to a final point: Vital equipment is in short supply, including personal protective equipment for health care providers and first responders, basic supplies for lab technicians, and ventilators for patients. One reason for that is Trump's misguided trade war with China, which led to tariffs on essential medical supplies and reduced their availability in the United States.

Today, I am calling on the Trump Administration to take the following steps immediately:

(1) Level with the American people by providing accurate and complete information on:

• existing U.S. supply of essential medical equipment, including in every hospital and clinic closet;
• the supply chain for essential medical equipment, from manufacturing to delivery;
• the measures being taken to ensure that manufacturers, distributors, and providers collaborate to prevent hoarding or the unfair allocation of limited supplies; and
• how the Strategic National Stockpile and Defense reserves have been and will continue to be distributed.

(2) Prioritize and immediately increase domestic production of any critical medical equipment required to respond to this crisis — such as the production of ventilators and associated training to operate — by invoking the Defense Production Act, delegating authority to HHS and FEMA. This action must be built on forecasted demand, using the best modeling currently available for negative scenarios. It would involve:

• Issuing a priority call for essential supplies above other contracts or orders, in collaboration with the health community so the federal government doesn't strip the private sector of necessary supplies;
• Expanding domestic production, potentially using loans, purchase commitments, and other incentives to meet anticipated demand without displacing production for other essential supplies; and
• Granting relief from antitrust laws, if necessary, to allow industries to work together and to remove any barrier to increased production capacity.

The Administration should provide a regular update to the public on the status of all of these steps, which should be taken under the guidance and direction of experts and public health and emergency response professionals. Also, Congress gave the White House more than $8 billion to fight the virus 12 days ago. The White House should report weekly on how quickly and well that money is being used. 

Americans are already making sacrifices and readjusting their lives, and I know that as a people, we are capable of meeting this challenge, coming together, caring for one another, and saving lives. We just need President Trump and his Administration to demonstrate the same level of dedication and aggressive leadership at the federal level to mount an effective national response.
 

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Biden for President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2020

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Vice President Joe Biden on Combating Coronavirus (COVID-19)

My fellow Americans:
 
Today, across the nation, many of us are feeling anxious about the rapid spread of COVID-19, known as the coronavirus, and the threat it poses to our health, our loved ones, and our livelihoods.
 
I know people are worried, and my thoughts are with all those who are directly fighting this virus — those infected, families that have suffered a loss, our first responders and health care providers who are putting themselves on the line for others. And I’d like to thank those who are already making sacrifices to protect us— whether that’s self-quarantining or cancelling events or closing campuses. Because whether or not you are infected, or know someone who is infected, or have been in contact with an infected person — this will require a national response. Not just from our elected leaders or our public health officials — from all of us.
 
We all must follow the guidance of health officials and take appropriate precautions — to protect ourselves, and critically, to protect others, especially those who are most at-risk from this disease.
 
It will mean making some radical changes to our personal behaviors: more frequent and more through handwashing and staying home from work if you are ill, but also altering some deeply-ingrained habits, like handshakes and hugs, and avoiding large public gatherings.
 
That is why earlier this week, on the recommendation of officials, my campaign cancelled the election night rally we had planned to hold in Cleveland, Ohio. We will also be re-imagining the format for the large-crowd events we had planned in Chicago and Miami in the coming days. And we will continue to assess and adjust how we conduct our campaign as we move forward, and find new ways to share our message with the public, while putting the health and safety of the American people first.
 
Yesterday, we announced a Public Health Advisory Committee of experts who will counsel our campaign and help guide our decisions on steps to minimize the risk. We will be led by the science.
 
The World Health Organization has now officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Downplaying it, being overly dismissive, or spreading misinformation will only hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease. But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia. Labeling COVID-19 a “foreign virus” does not displace accountability for the mismanagement that we have seen from the Trump Administration.
 
Let me be crystal clear: the coronavirus does not have a political affiliation. It will infect Republicans and Democrat  alike. It will not discriminate based on national origin,
race, gender, or zip code. It will touch people in positions of power and the most vulnerable in our society.
 
A wall will not stop it. Banning all travel from Europe, or any other part of the world, may slow it — but as we have seen — it will not stop it. And travel restrictions based on favoritism and politics — rather than risk — will be counterproductive. This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet. And we need a plan about how we are going to aggressively manage it here at home.
 
The American people have the capacity to meet this moment. We will face this with the same spirit that has guided us through previous crises. We will come together as a nation. We will look out for one another and do our part as citizens. We have to harness the ingenuity of our scientists and the resourcefulness of our people. And we have to lead the world to drive a coordinated global strategy, not shut ourselves off from it.
 
Protecting the health and safety of the American people is the most important job of any president — and unfortunately, this virus has laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current Administration. Public fears are being compounded by a pervasive lack of trust in this president, fueled by his adversarial relationship with the truth.
 
Our government’s ability to respond effectively has been undermined by the hollowing-out of our agencies and the disparagement of science. And our ability to drive a global response is dramatically undercut by the damage Trump has done to our credibility and our relationships around the world.
 
We have to get to work immediately to dig ourselves out of this hole. That is why, today, I am releasing a plan to combat and overcome the coronavirus. The full details are on JoeBiden.com laying out the immediate steps we must take to deliver: A decisive public health response to curb the spread of this disease and provide treatment to those in need; and a decisive economic response that delivers real relief to American workers, families, and small businesses — and protects the economy as a whole.
 
I offer it as a roadmap, not for what I will do as president 10 months from now, but for the leadership I believe is required right now, in this moment. President Trump is welcome to adopt it today. 
 
The core principle is simple: public health professionals must be the ones making our public health decisions and communicating with the American people. It would be a step toward reclaiming public trust and confidence in the United States government and toward stopping the fear and chaos that can overtake communities faster than this pandemic. And it’s critical to mounting an effective national response that will save lives, protect our front-line health workers, and slow the spread of this virus.  
 
First, anyone who needs to be tested based on medical guidelines, should be tested—at no charge. The Administration’s failure on testing is colossal. It is a failure of planning, leadership, and execution. The White House should measure and report each day how many tests were ordered, how many tests have been completed, and how many have tested positive. By next week, the number of tests should be in the millions, not the thousands. We should make sure every person in a nursing home, a senior center, or a vulnerable population has easy access to a test. 
 
We should establish hundreds of mobile testing sites — at least 10 per state — and drive-thru testing centers to speed testing and protect health care workers. 
 
The CDC, private labs, universities, and manufacturers should be working in lock-step to get this done, and get it done right. No effort should be spared. No excuses should be made. Tests should be available to all who need them and the government should stop at nothing to make that happen. 
 
We must know the true extent of this outbreak so we can map it, trace it, and contain it. Nor should we hide the true number of infections in hopes of protecting political interests or the stock market. The markets will respond to strong, steady, capable leadership that addresses the root of the problem, not efforts to cover it up.
 
Second, we need to surge our capability to both prevent and treat the coronavirus, and prepare our hospitals to deal with an influx of those needing care. This means not just getting out the testing kits and processing them quickly, but making sure communities have the hospital beds, the staff, the medical supplies, and the personal protective equipment necessary to treat patients.
 
The president should order FEMA to prepare the capacity with local authorities to establish temporary hospitals with hundreds of beds on short notice. The Department of Defense should prepare for the potential deployment of its resources to provide medical facility capacity and logistical support. A week from now, a month from now, we could need an instant, 500-bed hospital to isolate and treat patients in any city in the country. We can do that — but we aren’t ready yet, and the clock is ticking.

As we take these steps, state, federal, and local authorities need to ensure that there is accurate, up-to-date information easily available to every American so everyone can make an informed decision about when to get tested, when to self-quarantine, and when to seek medical treatment. And the federal government should provide states and municipalities with clear guidance about when to trigger more aggressive mitigation policies, such as closing schools.
 
Third, we need to accelerate the development of treatments and a vaccine. Science takes time. It will still be many months before we have a vaccine that can be proven safe for public use and produced in sufficient quantity to make a difference. Therapeutics can and should come sooner. That will save lives. We passed the Cures Act in 2016 to accelerate work at the National Institutes of Health, but now it must have every available resource to speed the process along.
 
We must fast-track clinical trials within the NIH, while closely coordinating with the Food and Drug Administration on trial approvals, so that the science is not hindered by the bureaucracy. And, when we do have a vaccine ready to go, it should also be made widely available, free of charge.  
 
We should also immediately restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense –with a full-time, dedicated coordinator to oversee the response.
 
Our Administration created that office to better respond to future global health threats after the Ebola crisis in 2014.
 
It was designed for exactly this scenario.
 
President Trump eliminated the office two years ago.
 
Here’s the bottom line: we have to do what is necessary to beat this challenge sooner rather than later.
 
I assure you, if we wait for it to worsen then scramble to catch up, the human and economic toll will be far greater and last far longer.
 
Congress gave the Administration $8 billion last week to fight the virus. 
 
We need to know exactly where that money is going, how quickly it is going out the door, and how it is being spent. 

This brings me to the second half of this challenge — the economic dislocation the coronavirus will cause in our country.
 
We must do whatever it takes, spend whatever it takes, to deliver relief for our families and ensure the stability of our economy.
 
Taking immediate, bold measures to help Americans who are hurting economically right now.
 
It means we will need bigger and broader measures to shore up economic demand, protect jobs, keep credit flowing to our job creators, and make sure we have the economic fire power we need to weather this storm and get our people and this economy back to full strength as soon as possible.  

This crisis will hit everyone, but it will hit folks who live paycheck-to-paycheck the hardest, including working people and seniors.
 
Another tax cut to Google or Goldman or millionaires won’t get the job done.
 
Indiscriminate corporate tax subsidies won’t effectively target those who really need help.
 
We need to place our focus on those who will struggle just to get by.
 
People are already losing jobs — we need to replace their wages.

That includes workers in the gig economy who lack unemployment insurance.

Parents who are already struggling with childcare costs — we need to give them relief.
 
Children who rely on school lunches will need food.

And schools will need help ensuring children who do not have easy access to computers can still learn if their schools close. 
 
People who have difficulty paying their rent or mortgage because they’ve been laid off or had their hours cut back — we need to help them stay in their homes.
 
Small businesses that will be devastated as customers stay home and events are canceled — we need to make sure they have access to interest-free loans.
 
It is a national disgrace that millions of our fellow citizens do not have a single day of paid sick leave.
 
We need — both — a permanent plan for paid sick leave and an emergency plan for everyone who needs it due to the outbreak.
 
Beyond these national measures, my plan also calls for the creation of a State and Local Emergency Fund to make sure governors, mayors, and local leaders who are battling coronavirus on the ground have the resources necessary to meet this crisis head on.

These funds could be used at the discretion of local leaders for whatever they most need: expanding critical health infrastructure, hiring additional health care and emergency service personnel, or cushioning the wider economic blow this virus will cause our communities. 
 
We need smart, bold, and compassionate leadership that will help contain the crisis, reduce hardship to our people, and help our economy rebound.
 
But let me be clear: this is just a start. 
 
We must prepare now to take further decisive action, including direct relief, that will be large in scale and focused on the broader health and stability of our economy.
 
But we can only protect the health of our economy, if we do everything in our power to protect the health of our people.

The last point I want to make today is this — we will never fully solve this problem if we are unwilling to look beyond our own borders and engage fully with the world.
 
A disease that starts any place on the planet can be on a plane to any city on earth a few hours later.
 
So we have to confront coronavirus everywhere. 
 
We should be leading a coordinated, global response, just as we did for Ebola, that draws on the incredible capability of the U.S. Agency for International Development and our State Department to assist vulnerable nations in detecting and treating coronavirus wherever it is spreading.
 
We should be investing in rebuilding and strengthening the Global Health Security Agenda, which we launched during our Administration, specifically to mobilize the world against the threat of new infectious diseases.
 
It can be hard to see the concrete value of this work when everything seems well with the world.
 
But by cutting our investments in global health, this Administration has left us woefully ill-prepared for the exact crisis we now face.
 
No President can promise to prevent future outbreaks.
 
But I can promise you that when I’m president, we will prepare better, respond better, and recover better.

We will lead with science.
 
We will listen to experts and heed their advice.
 
We will rebuild American leadership and rally the world to meet global threats.
 
And I will always, always tell you the truth.
 
That is the responsibility of a president.
 
That is what is owed to the American people.
 
Now, and in the difficult days that still lie ahead, I know that this country will summon our spirit of empathy, decency, and unity.
 
Because, in times of crisis, Americans stand as one. 
 
Volunteers raise their hands to help.
 
Neighbors look out for neighbors.
 
Businesses take care of their workers.
 
So we will meet this challenge — together.
 
Thank you all.

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Biden for President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2020

FACT SHEET:
The Biden Plan to Combat Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Prepare for Future Global Health Threats

For more information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding the coronavirus, please visit here.
 
The American people deserve an urgent, robust, and professional response to the growing public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. That is why Joe Biden is outlining a plan to mount:

• A decisive public health response that ensures the wide availability of free testing; the elimination of all cost barriers to preventive care and treatment for COVID-19; the development of a vaccine; and the full deployment and operation of necessary supplies, personnel, and facilities.
• A decisive economic response that starts with emergency paid leave for all those affected by the outbreak and gives all necessary help to workers, families, and small businesses that are hit hard by this crisis. Make no mistake: this will require an immediate set of ambitious and progressive economic measures, and further decisive action to address the larger macro-economic shock from this outbreak.

Biden believes we must spend whatever it takes, without delay, to meet public health needs and deal with the mounting economic consequences. The federal government must act swiftly and aggressively to help protect and support our families, small businesses, first responders and caregivers essential to help us face this challenge, those who are most vulnerable to health and economic impacts, and our broader communities – not to blame others or bail out corporations.
 
Public health emergencies require disciplined, trustworthy leadership grounded in science. In a moment of crisis, leadership requires listening to experts and communicating credible information to the American public. We must move boldly, smartly, and swiftly. Biden knows how to mount an effective crisis response and elevate the voices of scientists, public health experts, and first responders. He helped lead the Obama-Biden Administration’s effective response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Biden also helped lead the response to the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and ran point on implementation of the Recovery Act. He knows how to get relief out the door to families, as well as resources to state and local officials to deal with the challenges they are facing.
 
And, even as we respond to this crisis, we must prepare for the next one. As President, Biden will establish and manage a permanent, professional, sufficiently resourced public health and first responder system that protects the American people by scaling up biomedical research, deploying rapid testing capacity, ensuring robust nationwide disease surveillance, sustaining a first class public health and first responder workforce, establishing a flexible emergency budgeting authority, and mobilizing the world to ensure greater sustained preparedness for future pandemics.
 
Congress has taken a step forward by passing an initial bipartisan emergency plan to combat COVID-19. The Trump Administration must now heed the calls of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to put the health and safety of the American people first. Much more needs to be done, now, to bring our country together, respond to this emergency, and set the groundwork for bold, long-term reforms, including ensuring quality, affordable health care and a comprehensive paid leave program for every American.
 
Biden will be ready on Day One of his Administration to protect this country's health and well-being. But he is not waiting until then to communicate his views on what must be done now to properly serve the American people. Biden believes the following steps must immediately be taken. If Trump does not take them, Biden will on Day One as President.
 
The Biden Plan calls for:

• Restoring trust, credibility, and common purpose.
• Mounting an effective national emergency response that saves lives, protects frontline workers, and minimizes the spread of COVID-19.
• Eliminating cost barriers for prevention of and care for COVID-19.
• Pursuing decisive economic measures to help hard-hit workers, families, and small businesses and to stabilize the American economy.
• Rallying the world to confront this crisis while laying the foundation for the future.

Biden understands that this is a dynamic situation. The steps proposed below are a start. As the crisis unfolds, Biden will build on this policy to address new challenges.
 

RESTORING TRUST, CREDIBILITY, AND COMMON PURPOSE

• Stop the political theater and willful misinformation that has heightened confusion and discrimination. Biden believes we must immediately put scientists and public health leaders front and center in communication with the American people in order to provide regular guidance and deliver timely public health updates, including by immediately establishing daily, expert-led press briefings. This communication is essential to combating the dangerous epidemic of fear, chaos, and stigmatization that can overtake communities faster than the virus. Acts of racism and xenophobia against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community must not be tolerated.
• Ensure that public health decisions are made by public health professionals and not politicians, and officials engaged in the response do not fear retribution or public disparagement for performing their jobs.    
• Immediately restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which was established by the Obama-Biden Administration and eliminated by the Trump Administration in 2018.

 
MOUNTING AN EFFECTIVE NATIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE THAT SAVES LIVES, PROTECTS FRONTLINE WORKERS, AND MINIMIZES THE SPREAD OF COVID-19
 
Make Testing Widely Available and Free

• Ensure that every person who needs a test can get one – and that testing for those who need it is free. Individuals should also not have to pay anything out of their own pockets for the visit at which the test is ordered, regardless of their immigration status. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must draw on advice from outside scientists to clarify the criteria for testing, including consideration of prioritizing first responders and health care workers so they can return to addressing the crisis.
• Establish at least ten mobile testing sites and drive-through facilities per state to speed testing and protect health care workers. Starting in large cities and rapidly expanding beyond, the CDC must work with private labs and manufacturers to ensure adequate production capacity, quality control, training, and technical assistance. The number of tests must be in the millions, not the thousands.
• Provide a daily public White House report on how many tests have been done by the CDC, state and local health authorities, and private laboratories.
• Expand CDC sentinel surveillance programs and other surveillance programs so that we can offer tests not only only to those who ask but also to those who may not know to ask, especially vulnerable populations like nursing home patients and people with underlying medical conditions. This must be done in collaboration with private sector health care entities.
• Task the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help establish a diagnosis code for COVID-19 on an emergency basis so that surveillance can be done using claims data.

 
Surge Capacity for Prevention, Response, and Treatment

• Task all relevant federal agencies to take immediate action to ensure that America’s hospital capacity can meet the growing need, including by:
  • Preparing to stand up multi-hundred-bed temporary hospitals in any city on short notice by deploying existing Federal Medical Stations in the strategic national stockpile and preemptively defining potential locations for their use as needed.
  • Directing the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to prepare for potential deployment of military resources, both the active and reserve components, and work with governors to prepare for potential deployment of National Guard resources, to provide medical facility capacity, logistical support, and additional medical personnel if necessary. This includes activating the Medical Reserve Corps, which consists of nearly 200,000 volunteer health care professionals who stand ready to serve across America; training and deploying additional surge capacity, including U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/DOD medical equipment and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Disaster Assistance Medical Teams; and directing and assisting existing hospitals to surge care for 20% more patients than current capacity through flexible staffing, use of telemedicine support, and delaying elective procedures.
  • Instructing the CDC to establish real-time dashboards tracking (1) hospital admissions related to COVID-19, especially for ICUs and emergency departments, in concert with the American Hospital Association and large hospital chains, for which the HHS must ensure data is able to be shared, as needed; and (2) supply chain information – including availability, allocation, and shipping – for essential equipment and personal protective equipment, including in the various places where there may be federal reserves. The strategic national stockpile must be used to supplement any shortages that exist, especially for essential medical supplies, like oxygen, ventilators, and personal protective equipment.
  • Ensuring that training, materials, and resources reach federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, and safety-net hospitals, which are typically resource-poor and care disproportionately for vulnerable populations that will bear the brunt of COVID-19. This effort will lay the foundation for a deeper and more lasting public health infrastructure for accessible national health care for all.
• Surge tele-emergency room, tele-ICU care, and telemedicine through a concerted, coordinated effort by health care providers to enable staff to manage additional patients and save beds for the very sick. Leverage existing efforts like Project ECHO to ensure health professionals have tele-mentoring and other training resources they need to make informed decisions.
• Support older adults, vulnerable individuals, and people with disabilities. Ensure essential home- and community-based services continue and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid works to provide the waivers necessary for those who rely on medication to have a sufficient supply.
• Protect health care workers, first responders, assisted living staff, and other frontline workers.
  • Give all frontline workers high-quality and appropriate personal protective equipment – and enough of it and appropriate training to use it – so they don’t become infected. If our health care workers, first responders, and essential workers like transportation and food workers cannot function, we cannot protect and care for the public. The Biden Plan calls for issuing guidance to states and localities to ensure first responders and public health officials are prioritized to receive protective personal equipment and launching an education campaign to inform the general public about equipment that should be reserved for professionals.
  • Direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to keep frontline workers safe by issuing an Emergency Temporary Standard that requires health care facilities to implement comprehensive infectious disease exposure control plans; increasing the number of OSHA investigators to improve oversight; and working closely with state occupational safety and health agencies and state and local governments, and the unions that represent their employees, to ensure comprehensive protections for frontline workers.
• Ensure first responders, including local fire departments and Emergency Medical Services, can meet the staffing requirements needed to respond and are trained to recognize the symptoms of COVID-19.

 
Accelerate the Development of Treatment and Vaccines

• Ensure the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority are swiftly accelerating the development of rapid diagnostic tests, therapeutics and medicines, and vaccines. NIH must be responsible for the clinical trial networks and work closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on trial approvals.
• Ensure the FDA is working with the NIH to prioritize review and authorization for use of COVID-19 countermeasures and strengthen regulatory science at the FDA to make certain it has the needed resources to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new tools.

 
Provide Timely Information and Medical Advice and Guidance

• Work with the CDC and HHS to ensure that health departments and health providers across the country give every person access to an advice line or interactive online advice so they can make an informed decision about whether to seek care or to stay at home. This will preserve the health care system for those who are sick and prevent people who may not need to see a provider from becoming needlessly exposed. Ensure all information provided to the public is accessible to people with disabilities, including through plain language materials and American sign language interpreters.
• Instruct the CDC to provide clear, stepwise guidance and resources about both containment and mitigation for local school districts, health care facilities, higher education and school administrators, and the general public. Right now, there is little clarity for these groups about when to move toward social distancing measures, like cancelling school, mass gatherings, and travel and when to move to tele-work and distance learning models.
• Ensure firefighters and other emergency responders are notified if they have been exposed to individuals infected with COVID-19.

 
Launching Urgent Public Health System Improvements for Now and the Future

• Work with businesses to expand production of personal protective equipment, including masks and gloves, and additional products such as bleach and alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Incentivize greater supplier production of these critically important medically supplies, including committing, if necessary, to large scale volume purchasing and removing all relevant trade barriers to their acquisition.
• Task the U.S. Department of Justice with combating price gouging for critical supplies.
• Take steps in the aftermath of the crisis to produce American-sourced and manufactured pharmaceutical and medical supply products in order to reduce our dependence on foreign sources that are unreliable in times of crisis. The U.S. government should immediately work with the private sector to map critical health care supplies; identify their points of origin; examine the supply chain process; and create a strategic plan to build redundancies and domestic capacity. The goal is to develop the next generation of biomedical research and manufacturing excellence, bring back U.S. manufacturing of medical products we depend on, and ensure we are not vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, whether from another pandemic, or because of political or trade disputes.
• Establish and fund a U.S. Public Health Service Reserve Corps to activate former Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers to expand medical and public health capacity. By creating the Reserve Corps, we will have a larger team of health professionals to deploy across the nation to help train health care systems in detection and response, educate the public, provide direct patient care as needed, and support the public health infrastructure in communities that are often under-resourced and struggling.
• Expand the Staffing for the Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant program so that fire departments - critical first responders in health emergencies—can increase staffing. As Vice President, Biden secured an expansion of the SAFER Act to keep more firefighters on the job during the Great Recession. He will expand the grants to build well-staffed, well-trained fire departments across the country.

 
Providing the Resources Necessary to Achieve These Outcomes
 
To implement this national emergency response, the Biden Plan calls for an immediate increase of federal resources to cover all necessary federal costs, as well as the creation of a State and Local Emergency Fund that gives state and local leaders the power to meet critical health and economic needs to combat this crisis. This Fund will be designed as follows:

• Resources will be allocated according to a formula: 45% to state governments; 45% to local governments; and 10% reserved for special assistance for “hot-spots” of community spread.
• Menus of Permissible Usages: Governors and mayors will be given significant flexibility to ensure that they can target their health and economic spending where it is most needed in their respective states and cities. Such usages include:
  • Paying for medical supplies and expanding critical health infrastructure, including building new or renovating existing facilities, if necessary;
  • Expanding hiring where needed including health care and emergency services workers, caregivers in nursing homes, drivers, childcare workers, substitute teachers, and others;
  • Providing overtime reimbursements for health workers, first responders, and other essential workers.
• The Fund will also be deployed to cushion the wider economic impact of the crisis, helping hard-hit families and communities, as described later in the fact sheet.

 
Bringing Our Country Together
 
Now is the time for empathy, decency, and unity. In times of crisis, Americans come together, and everyone steps up to meet our shared civic duty.  We need that spirit now: volunteers standing ready to fill essential gaps, neighbors looking out for neighbors, business taking care of their workers, people contributing to frontline non-profit organizations, social media companies combating the spread of misinformation, universities and the private sector driving innovation in the search for new treatments and vaccines, and all of us following the guidance of health officials to take steps that reduce the spread of the virus. Biden believes this can’t just be a government response -- it has to be a whole-of-society response. 
 
ELIMINATING COST BARRIERS FOR PREVENTION OF AND CARE FOR COVID-19
 
The cost of preventive care, treatment, and a potential vaccine could be an insurmountable
economic barrier for many Americans. If we fail to remove this barrier, we will be turning our
backs on these Americans in a time of crisis, and putting all Americans at risk by discouraging
people from getting necessary testing and treatment. The Biden Plan:

• Ensures that every person, whether insured or uninsured, will not have to pay a dollar out-of-pocket for visits related to COVID-19 testing, treatment, preventative services, and any eventual vaccine.  No co-payments, no deductibles, and no surprise medical billing. This will be achieved by:
  • Amending the Public Health Service Act to immediately cover all testing, treatment, and preventive services that are necessary to address a Public Health Emergency for an infectious disease. Once triggered by the HHS Secretary in consultation with the CDC, all commercial plans in all markets will be immediately required to cover such services as COVID-19 testing and any eventual vaccine with no copayments and deductibles, including for the visits themselves.
  • Amending the Social Security Act and other authorizing statutes to extend the same requirement to all public health programs.  As such, there will be no co-pays for programs including but not limited to Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP, the Indian Health Service, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, DoD’s TriCare program and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan.
  • Fully funding and expanding authority for the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) to reimburse health care providers for COVID-19-related treatment costs not directly covered by health insurance; this includes all copayments and deductibles for the insured as well as uncompensated care burdens incurred by uninsured and underinsured populations. Direct the HHS Secretary to direct NDMS, in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for administrative and enforcement support, to directly reimburse health care providers for:
    • All uncompensated care associated with the testing, treatment, and vaccines that are associated with COVID-19 for uninsured. This includes Americans in so-called “junk” health plans that are not regulated as compliant with the standards for individual market coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
    • All copayments, deductibles and any cost-sharing for treatment for COVID-19 for insured. Providers will submit cost-sharing claims to NDMS that document private insurance contractual arrangement for co-payments. To ensure maximum provider participation and minimum billing abuses to consumers, current Medicare law’s “conditions of participation” and system-wide prohibitions against balance billing and surprise medical bills will apply. To guard against fraud and abuse by bad-apple health care providers, harsh civil and monetary penalties under the False Claims Act will apply.
• Secures maximum Medicaid enrollment for currently eligible populations by explicitly authorizing federal matching dollars for presumptive eligibility, simplified application processes, and eligibility criteria. In past public health crises, such as Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, the federal government provided matching dollars for states to expedite enrollment for individuals who are eligible for Medicaid but not yet enrolled. This option must be specifically made available to states for the COVID-19 public health crisis. These policies are consistent with and complementary to the FMAP policy included in the federal economic assistance package below.
• Reverses the Trump Administration public charge rule, which places new, burdensome restrictions on documented immigrants who receive public benefits and discourages all immigrants from seeking health care services for COVID-19.
• Supports bipartisan efforts to delay the Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation, which forces states to change how they finance their Medicaid programs and leads to major reductions in funding for critically important health care.
• Provides explicit authority for the HHS Secretary to approve the commercial price of vaccines that are developed in conjunction with federally funded research. This ensures that the private, as well as the public sector, will not be subjected to vaccine prices that fail a “fair and reasonable” cost standard and, even if the vaccine is available free of charge, will protect the taxpayer from being gouged.
• Ensures federal workers are able to access workers’ compensation and encourage states to do the same. Because it will be difficult for workers to prove that they were exposed to COVID-19 while on the job, the Biden Plan will ensure the Federal Employees' Compensation Act program presumes they were exposed while on the job if their job put them in direct contact with infected individuals. And, he will encourage states to do the same.

 
PURSUING DECISIVE ECONOMIC MEASURES HARD-HIT WORKERS, FAMILIES, AND SMALL BUSINESSES AND TO STABILIZE THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
 
The Biden Plan will provide both financial support for those who are economically harmed by the fall-out of the crisis and help strengthen our economy as a whole. This includes taking immediate, bold measures to help Americans who are hurting economically right now. It means  we will need bigger and broader measures to shore up economic demand to ensure we can protect jobs; keep credit flowing to our job creators, and have the economic firepower we need to weather this storm and get our people and economy back to full strength as soon as possible.
 
These immediate measures include both direct federal support and a renewable fund to state and local governments. Both the federal and state/local relief will be designed to be automatically extended upon certification by the federal government of a continuing health or economic threat, determined by clear health and economic criteria. This is critical to ensure that our political and legislative stalemates do not prevent additional rounds of funding from moving out swiftly when it is needed most.
 
Joe Biden believes we must do whatever it takes, spend whatever it takes, to deliver relief for our families and ensure the stability of our economy. This is an evolving crisis and the response will need to evolve, too, with additional steps to come so that we meet the growing economic shocks. We must prepare now to take further decisive action, including direct relief, that will be large in scale and focused on the broader health and stability of our economy.
 
The immediate economic measures in Biden’s plan consist of three parts, with additional measures to come as circumstances warrant, including further direct relief:
 
Providing Guaranteed Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Care-Giving Leave
 
As a nation, our goal must be to permanently provide the type of comprehensive 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave envisioned in the FAMILY Act sponsored by Senator Kristen Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro. We must also provide the type of coverage in the Healthy Families Act spearheaded by DeLauro and Senator Patty Murray, which will ensure workers receive seven days of paid sick leave for routine personal and family health needs, as well as time for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to seek services.
 
Providing widespread access to paid sick leave not only allows families to recover from sickness, but it also keeps sick workers and children away from the general population and helps slow the spread of disease. The Biden Plan calls for an emergency paid leave program that will ensure that all workers can take paid leave during the COVID-19 crisis. It calls for passage of the Healthy Families Act with the addition of an emergency plan that will require 14 days of paid leave for those who are sick, exposed, or subject to quaratines—while also ensuring that employers will not bear any additional costs for such additional leave in the midst of this crisis.
 
Types of Paid Leave that Must be Covered: Joe Biden’s emergency paid leave plan will be tailored to cover the various types of leave needed for our nation to get through this crisis. The paid leave plan will create a federal fund to cover 100% of weekly salaries or average weekly earnings capped at $1,400 a week—the weekly amount that corresponds with about $72,800 in annual earnings.

• Paid Leave for Sick Workers;
• Paid Leave for Workers Caring for Family Members or Other Loved Ones;
• Paid Leave for People Unable to Continue Work Because They Are At Increased Risk of Health Complications Due to COVID-19;
• Paid Leave and Child Care Assistance for Dealing with School Closings; and
• Paid Leave for Domestic Workers, Caregivers, Gig Economy Workers, and Independent Contractors.

Reimbursements to Employers: This emergency plan will provide reimbursement to employers or, when necessary, direct payment to workers for up to 14 days of paid sick leave or for the duration of mandatory quarantine or isolation. This will be in addition to existing paid leave provided by a business’s existing policies. No worker or contractor taking such leave during the crisis will impose any additional financial burden on a business. Businesses will be expected to support paid sick leave and seek reimbursement  – or deduct against expected tax payments  – to ensure workers are not discouraged from reporting symptoms of COVID-19. Direct payment will go to workers where needed due to their work arrangements.
 
Emergency Administration: Biden’s plan will provide all necessary funding to ensure such paid sick leave will be available immediately. One potential option for workers who require direct paid sick leave payments will be to staff up existing Social Security Administration offices to assist with distribution of the emergency paid leave fund. These offices exist throughout our nation and are the vehicle proposed by the FAMILY Act for a national paid leave plan – so this emergency legislation will also start building national infrastructure for a permanent and long-needed national paid leave benefit.
 
Federal Assistance to Hard-Hit Families
 
A Health Crisis Unemployment Initiative to Help all Workers Facing a Loss for Work Due to the COVID-19 Crisis. The reduction in demand for services such as hospitality, necessary closing of workplaces, and disruptions in supply chains will impact workers in all types of work arrangements. Just as the Obama-Biden Administration expanded regular unemployment insurance during the Great Recession, Joe Biden will again call for expanded Emergency Unemployment Compensation that will not only support workers facing extended spells of unemployment, but expand benefits and eligibility to address the nature of the job loss that will be impacted for the duration of the crisis. The Biden Plan calls for immediate expanded federal relief for impacted workers, that includes:

• Ensuring Unemployment Benefits (UI) Are Available to Those Who Lose Jobs but Would Be Denied Benefits Due to Rules that Should Not Apply in a Major Health Crisis and Economic Downturn: The Biden Plan calls for expanded and broadened unemployment benefits that ensure our unemployment benefit policies are responsive to the depth and nature of this health and economic crisis. That means more support for state offices that will face far higher demand. It means waiving or relaxing work history, waiting and work search requirements that could prevent millions who might lose work due to no fault of their own from being left out in the cold. Current UI rules rightly require recipients to be actively looking for work. The nature of the COVID-19 crisis means, however, that many who lose their jobs will be prevented from looking for work due to public health rules related to containing community spread. The Biden Plan will ensure that workers who lose jobs but cannot meet search requirements due to this public health crisis are not denied benefits. This initiative can be combined with efforts to expand and reform our existing Disaster Unemployment Assistance program.
• Employment Relief for Reduced Hours or Work-Sharing Arrangements: In addition to assistance for those who lose jobs, the Biden Plan will design unemployment insurance benefits to encourage expanded work-sharing arrangements for workers at businesses that are forced to cut back payroll due to lower economic demand, diminished travel, or cancelled orders. The Biden Plan will ensure that partial unemployment benefits are available to workers facing a significant reduction in hours so as to encourage employers to choose work-sharing over layoffs where possible. Such policies will build on those implemented by the Obama-Biden Administration during the Great Recession. The Biden Plan will require that this is implemented in a way that is consistent with existing collective bargaining agreements and that any employer with employees represented by a union create these arrangements in cooperation with the unions.
• Provide Employment Relief for Domestic Workers, Caregivers, Gig Workers, or Independent Contractors who face Reduced Pay and Hours: Too often, our unemployment relief only helps those who are in more formal employer-employee relations. It leaves out too many of the hardest working, most hard-pressed Americans who drive cars, clean homes, and care for our younger and older loved ones. The Biden Plan will offer economic relief to all workers who can show hours have been cut back due to COVID-19 or to resulting economic impacts.
• Expand Food Relief for Hard-Pressed Families and Children: The Biden Plan calls for a health crisis food initiative that addresses both the depth of potential economic hardship for families and the nature of this health crisis. Economic hardship caused by the crisis will stretch family budgets in ways that could reduce needed nutrition. Many students rely on free or discounted meals at schools, which may have to close. The Biden Plan health crisis food initiative will create a federal-state partnership – fully funded by the federal government – that will expand SNAP relief for the duration of the crisis, as well as broaden the type of food relief responses available to states – from supporting food banks across the nation to increased home delivery of food to a broad effort to replace lost school meals. It will adjust current policies that will harshly cut off or deny food benefits to workers unable to find work in this crisis. It will allow schools to submit waiver applications before they are impacted by the crisis, making it easier for them to get permission to provide food even when school is closed.
• Increase Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for the state-administered Medicaid program: The Biden Plan calls for an increase in the share the federal government pays of Medicaid – the so-called FMAP. This is one of the fastest, most effective means to concurrently address the health and revenue burdens states face when confronting an economic crisis. The Biden Plan will increase the FMAP by at least 10 percent for all states during the crisis, with upward adjustments for states that are facing particularly high unemployment rates. It will also provide additional financial incentives for states that have not yet expanded their Medicaid program and will provide necessary additional support to Puerto Rico and other territories to ensure the health care needs of these populations are not neglected. 
• Establish a Temporary Small- and Medium-Sized Business Loan Facility: Many businesses that would otherwise thrive during normal economic times will face a severe shortfall in cash flow, potentially jeopardizing their ability to make payrolls, pay creditors, and keep their doors open. Working with the Small Business Association and Treasury Department, the Biden Plan proposes to establish a temporary small business loan program designed to address unanticipated shortfalls in revenue by offering interest-free loans to small- and medium-sized businesses around the country through the duration of the crisis. Biden's plan includes both increased funding capacity for the Small Business Administration, in addition to a new program – modeled after the Obama-Biden State Small Business Credit Initiative--that provides funds to allow states to increase lending to small businesses. The Biden Plan also calls on the U.S. Treasury Department to coordinate with the Federal Reserve to monitor and consider policies to address severe credit and liquidity challenges related to the fall-out of COVID-19 and thus prevent small businesses and those in impacted industries from severe cutbacks, shutdowns, and layoffs.
• Support for Child Care and Remote Student Learning: Potential school closings will create significant cost issues for parents seeking childcare and for schools and educators seeking to continue teaching remotely including online. The Biden Plan will expand assistance to federal child care centers and assistance to schools – particularly Title I schools -- for those facing schools facing extra costs, including efforts to continue remote education or remote activities normally done after-school.
• Relief or Forbearance of Federal Student Loans and Federally Backed Mortgages: Congress must immediately use new legislation or existing authority to provide assistance of forbearance to students and homeowners to provide financial relief until the worst of the economic fall-out of the crisis is over. As proposed below, there must also be a federal partnership with states and cities to provide rental relief during the crisis, so no one faces evictions due to impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Protecting union health funds. Union members have fought hard for their health insurance. Biden will commit to ensuring their Taft-Hartley health funds have the financial resources they need to continue despite the crisis.
 
A State and Local Emergency Fund
 
In addition to these federal initiatives, governors and mayors can access funds through the State and Local Emergency Fund to cushion the economic impacts in their communities.  This Fund, as noted above, will also provide state and local leaders with resources and flexibility for responding to the immediate health crisis and economic fall-out in ways that best address the needs of their towns, cities, and states. The range of relief will include:

• Mortgage & Rental Relief for Impacted Workers: No one should face foreclosure or eviction because they are affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The State and Local Emergency Fund will allow mayors and governors to implement rental assistance, no-interest forbearance or mortgage payment relief for workers who have had to reduce their hours, have been laid off, or are otherwise earning less because of COVID-19.
• Employer Assistance for Job Maintenance: Funds could provide help for employers to keep workers on the job – or to do work-sharing with part-time relief to workers – when they are impacted by falls in economic demand or recession.
• Interest-Free Loans for Small Businesses: Governors and mayors will also be able to supplement their existing programs to assist local employers who are facing temporary economic distress due to supply-chain disruptions, declines in travel or economic demand due to continuing economic uncertainty related to the COVID-19. To supplement the federal loan program, state and local leaders can access these  resources to help small businesses cope with a potential sharp cutback in economic activity.
• Needed Jobs: To both deal with additional needs due to COVID-19 or to address resulting declines in employment, the fund will be authorized to fund existing or new local and state jobs initiatives.
• Cash Assistance or Targeted Refundable Tax Relief: Where governors and mayors determine it is necessary to adequately address the full range of economic pain created by the COVID-19, the fund will authorize such leaders to directly draw on it to implement broader progressive cash or tax relief – that could include cash payments  to working families, unpaid caregivers, seniors. those with disabilities, and children, or a child allowance. It could also be used to fund new legislation to expand State Earned Income Tax Credit relief.

 
More Will Be Needed
 
Biden understands that the crisis will have broader economic impacts that will no doubt require further action. The steps outlined above must be taken immediately and then Congress must move to understand the broader economic implications and act accordingly. And, any relief provided to states or industries must include conditions to support workers, including protecting their jobs.
 
Making the Economy More Resilient for Future Crises
 
Biden has released several plans to build a stronger, more inclusive middle class that will increase the resilience of all Americans in the face of a crisis. His plan to create a new public option is the quickest, most effective way to achieve universal health coverage. He will invest in infrastructure, like broadband, essential for mitigating the impact of future pandemics. And, he will encourage union organizing and defend collective bargaining. Unions can help negotiate for better safety and health protections, provide better training for personal protective equipment, protect against layoffs, and help ensure generous wages and benefits to help workers in a crisis. And, unions can provide a critical voice in handling crises, especially those that represent the many workers that are exposing themselves to hazards in order to keep Americans safe. Read Joe Biden’s labor plan here.
 
RALLY THE WORLD TO CONFRONT THIS CRISIS WHILE LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE
 
The only way to stop the threat from infectious diseases like COVID-19 is to detect them early and contain them effectively in communities around the world. Even as we take urgent steps to minimize the spread of COVID-19 at home, we must also help lead the response to this crisis globally. In doing so, we will lay the groundwork for sustained global health security leadership into the future. 
 
Leading the Global Response to COVID-19

• Direct the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, DOD,  HHS, and the CDC, to mobilize an international response that assists vulnerable nations in detecting, treating, and minimizing the spread of COVID-19, including deploying, when necessary, USAID Disaster Assistance Response Teams. Biden will empower the State Department to ensure the U.S. plays a major role in all global decisions about the outbreak and our experts have the access they need to COVID-19 hotspots. Staying on the sidelines or deferring to other nations ultimately makes us less safe and secure.
• Call for the immediate creation of a Global Health Emergency Board to harmonize crisis response for vulnerable communities. The Board will convene leadership of the United States, our G7 partners, and other countries in support of the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure a coordinated health and economic response globally, especially with respect to vulnerable countries. The Board will bring together scientific experts from the WHO and CDC, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other key CDCs, international financial institutions, and leading private sector and non-profit representatives to (1) offset the cost of bringing any eventual vaccines to developing countries, (2) harmonize economic measures with the emergency response globally, and (3) establish and ensure high standards for transparency and communication. In the future, the convening of the Board would be triggered by a public health emergency of international concern declaration by the WHO.
• Protect America’s troops and deployed citizens, by bolstering CDC and DOD’s disease detection and protection programs overseas, planning for securing diplomatic and military assets and deployments in countries affected by COVID-19, and providing testing, care, and treatment and, if necessary, evacuation for military, public health service, foreign service, and deployed civil service personnel who become infected.

 
Advancing Global Health Security
 
Under the Obama-Biden Administration, the United States established the Global Health Security Agenda to mobilize the world against the threat of emerging infectious diseases. A Biden Administration will not only revitalize and elevate this Agenda after years of neglect under the Trump Administration, but also expand it to ensure it is suited to meet new challenges. Above all, we need to end the cycles of panic investment and neglect for our U.S. public health system and health systems around the world. They need to remain strong and ready to prevent, detect, and respond to pandemic threats whether caused by natural causes and climate change, bioterrorism, or laboratory accidents. Biden will:

• Fully staff all federal agencies, task forces, and scientific and economic advisory groups focused on health security. This includes establishing an Assistant Secretary at the State Department to oversee an office of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, and engaging regional bureaus and embassies to improve health security readiness, governance, and global coordination.
• Re-embrace international engagement, including prioritizing sustained funding for global health security – above and beyond emergency appropriations – to strengthen joint standing capacity for biosurveillance and health emergency response. Biden calls for the creation of a Permanent Facilitator within the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General for Response to High Consequence Biological Events, as recommended by experts, to facilitate crisis coordination among health, security, and humanitarian organizations. He also calls for fully resourcing the WHO, especially its Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
• Support sustainable health security financing to urgently fill substantial gaps in global pandemic preparedness. The Biden Administration will build the global coalition necessary to fill urgent global gaps in pandemic preparedness, enhance accountability for those investments, and produce measurable results.
• Build a global health security workforce for the 21^st century. Biden will prioritize investing in and lifting barriers to the education of public health professionals, especially in less advantaged communities, including by strengthening the CDC’s Field Epidemiology Training Program and Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Program. We must support opportunities for global experts to train together so they are ready to deploy to assist the WHO and partner governments in responding to infectious disease threats, regardless of origin, including to insecure or unstable environments.
• Fight climate change as a driver of health threats. The link between climate change and health security is well-documented and will create a growing threat to Americans. A Biden Administration will recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on day one and lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets. As President, Biden will fully integrate climate change into our foreign policy and global health security strategies, and prioritize efforts to mitigate disease and migration challenges caused by a warming planet. Read Biden’s full climate change plan here.

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Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
March 12, 2020

Trump Campaign Statement on Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Remarks

“In the past, Joe Biden has shown terrible judgment and incompetence in the face of public health issues.  The Obama White House had to publicly apologize for and clean up after Biden when his irresponsible remarks caused panic during the swine flu outbreak in 2009. Just weeks ago, he was openly critical of President Trump’s early move to restrict travel from China to the United States in response to the coronavirus – a decision which medical experts agree helped impede the spread of the virus to this country. Yesterday his campaign actually raised the vile conspiracy theory that the President purposely allowed the coronavirus to spread.  In times like this, America needs leadership and Biden has shown none. President Trump acted early and decisively and has put the United States on stronger footing than other nations. His every move has been aimed at keeping Americans safe, while Joe Biden has sought to capitalize politically and stoke citizens’ fears.”

- Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director