On Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke at a CNN event where he called President Donald Trump a “callous leader.” He also poked fun at Attorney General William Barr for saying that stay-at-home orders are the greatest threats to freedom during a pandemic.
Biden commented, “What takes away your freedom is not being able to see your kid, not being able to go to the football game or baseball game, not being able to see your mom or dad sick in the hospital, not being able to do the things, that’s what is costing us our freedom.”
“And it’s been the failure of this president to deal, to deal with this virus, and he knew about it,” he added.
The Democratic nominee turned the attention toward journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, which revealed that Trump admitted to downplaying the coronavirus.
Biden said, “I don’t trust the president on vaccines. I trust Dr. Fauci. If Fauci says a vaccine is safe, I’d take the vaccine.”
Biden’s comments came shortly after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new, heavily criticized recommendation on who should be tested. It suggested that those who are not showing symptoms of the virus do not need to be tested, an idea contrary to what top public health experts think. The recommendations were not written by CDC scientists, and instead, drafted Trump officials at the Department of Human Health and Services (HHS).
Administration officials familiar with the matter told the New York Times, “That was a doc that came from the top down, from the HHS and the task force. That policy does not reflect what many people at the CDC feel should be the policy.”
Despite their disagreements with the new testing recommendation and reopening schools, CDC scientists’ explained their lack of power to make “substantive edits” or objections.
