Biden’s Pandemic Response Debate

September 29, 2020
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Biden’s Pandemic Response Debate

Be it resolved, America’s pandemic response can, and will only, improve when Biden is President.

Flouting mask wearing as means to help control the pandemic. Forcing states to secure critical medical supplies and bootstrap their own testing capacity. Touting hydroxychloroquine as a key COVID therapy. These are some of the more memorable features of the national pandemic response of the United States to date. A response that has led the US to have the largest number of COVID deaths globally – 200,000 and counting. But millions of Americans believe that President Trump’s approach to the pandemic has been realistic, if not visionary. They say that stabilizing COVID cases and a declining death rate prove that President Trump was right not to panic, that the virus is not an existential threat. Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, believes otherwise. He supports nation-wide mask wearing, targeted lockdowns, and a go-slow approach that privileges public health over the economy. The November 3 vote in America is as much a referendum on the future course of the pandemic in the U.S as it is a vote for either candidate. Who wins will determine the trajectory of the virus, the economic recovery, and the fate of tens of thousands of lives.

“Trump has surrounded himself with fantasies, hallucinations, quick fixes, silver bullets, magical thinking. Biden has experience, including people who have managed the Ebola crisis. They will manage this down so Americans feel safe again.”

– Andy Slavitt

“The problem with the Biden campaign is that politics is going to be intermingled much too much with the science, and that is going to prolong the coronavirus situation.”

– Richard Epstein

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