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Here’s What Joe Biden Would Change On COVID-19 Starting Day One

If former Vice President Joe Biden takes up residence in the White House in January, Americans can expect a very different approach to confronting the coronavirus pandemic than they’ve seen from President Donald Trump.

One enormous change would simply be the difference in tone and attitude. Biden would be unlikely to deny the severity of the pandemic, encourage Americans to ignore basic safety precautions, tout miracle cures or promote advisers who spread misinformation, as Trump has done over the course of the outbreak.

“I’ll immediately put in place a national strategy that will position our country to finally get ahead of this virus and get back our lives,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, last Friday.

“I’ll reach out to every governor in every state, red and blue, as well as mayors and local officials during the transition, to find out what support they need and how much of it they need. I’ll ask the new Congress to put a bill on my desk by the end of January, with all the resources necessary to see how both our public health and our economic response can be seen through the end,” Biden said.

Contrast that with Trump’s repeated insistence that “we are rounding the corner” on the pandemic and the White House’s declaration of victory over the virus even as cases rise to record levels and nearly the entire country is trending in the wrong direction. Compare Biden’s plan to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ statement on Sunday that “we’re not going to control the pandemic.”

Putting Science First

Biden would employ a different rhetorical approach, but he’d also vowed to make significant substantive changes in the federal response to the spread of COVID-19. Americans would hear less from the White House and the president’s political appointees, and more from scientists, physicians and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and other key health...

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