Joe Biden said if elected he would put in place a national strategy to fight the virus (File)
Wilmington, United States:
Democrat Joe Biden said on Friday that if elected president he would demand that Covid-19 vaccines be free for all Americans, as part of a national strategy to “get ahead” of the coronavirus .
As he laid out his contingency plan to tackle the pandemic, Biden assaulted President Donald Trump for his response, claiming the Republican president had “given up” on tackling the virus and “abandoned America.”
Biden, who made a point of following scientists’ guidelines such as wearing face masks and social distancing, said if elected he would focus on fighting the pandemic and for help Americans struggling with costs.
“Once we have a safe and effective vaccine, it must be free for everyone – whether you are insured or not,” Biden said in a speech outlining his pandemic response plan just 11 days before the US presidential election.
Trump, who follows Biden in the polls, also stressed that a vaccine – which he says will be ready in the coming weeks – should be free.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says doses of the Covid-19 vaccine purchased with taxpayer dollars – thanks to billions of dollars in Congress-approved funding – would be administered free of charge to the American people.
Trump, in his second and final debate with Biden, attempted Thursday to signal that the United States is overcoming the pandemic.
“We turn the turn, we turn the corner, it goes,” Trump said.
But Biden-led Democrats have been hammering Trump for failing to present and implement a national response to a pandemic that has now killed more than 223,000 Americans.
“Covid-19 eclipses anything we’ve come across in recent history and it shows no signs of slowing down,” Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, adding that the virus is “increasing” in almost every States. .
“We are more than eight months into this crisis and the president still has no plan,” said the 77-year-old former vice president.
“He gave up. He abandoned you. He abandoned your family. He left America.”
Biden said if elected he would “immediately” put in place a national strategy “to finally get ahead of this virus and get our lives back.”
This would include consulting the governors of the 50 states during the presidential transition.
After the inauguration, Biden would urge Congress to pass major legislation to meet the nation’s needs to fight the pandemic, implement a national mask mandate in federal buildings and interstate transportation, and launch a plan to national test equivalent to a seven-fold increase from the current test level.
Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris told donors on Friday that the coronavirus crisis was “possibly one of the biggest mass events we’ve ever seen as a country.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
