President-elect Joe Biden is reassuring Americans the United States is not headed for another economic shutdown.
“I am not going to shut down the economy. Period. I’m going to shut down the virus. That’s what I am going to shut down. I’ll say it again, no national shutdown,” Biden said.
He added, “No national shutdown because every region, every area, every community can be different and, so, there’s no circumstance which I can see would require a total national shutdown. I think that would be counterproductive.”
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President-elect Biden: "I am not gonna shut down the economy. Period. I'm gonna shut down the virus. I'll say it again, no national shutdown." pic.twitter.com/9oaDGOFHhs
— The Recount (@therecount) November 19, 2020
Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the co-chair of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, indicated a second lockdown is not the former vice president’s number one priority, as IJR previously reported.
“Right now, the way we should be thinking about this is more like a series of restrictions that we dial up or down depending on how bad spread is taking place in a specific region,” Murthy said during an appearance on “Good Morning America.”
He went on, “We’re not in a place where we’re saying shut the whole country down. We’ve gotta be more targeted. If we don’t do that, what you’re going to find is that people will become even more fatigued, schools won’t be open to children and the economy will be hit harder.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci also told “Good Morning America” that “there is no appetite for locking down the American public.”
He continued, “We can do it without a lockdown.”
With Trump’s consistent refusal to concede the election, some are concerned vaccine distribution could be delayed.
Fauci emphasized the need for a “smooth” presidential transition to move forward with getting a vaccine out, as IJR previously reported.
Biden warned if there is no smooth transition from the current administration to the next, providing a vaccine could take longer.