WATCH: Biden Answers Whether He’d Issue a National Mandate to Wear a Mask or Get Covid Vaccine
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Thursday evening for a town hall with voters, and was asked about whether he would support a national mandate for coronavirus preventative measures like wearing masks or taking a vaccine. In both cases, he was not in favor of a federal law, but discussed in detail how a president could take the lead in encouraging Americans to adopt these measures.
Biden criticized President Donald Trump for his inaccurate promises and comments about a potential vaccine, “we’re going to have one right away,” but if a vaccine had properly progressed through the three phases required under FDA procedures, then “yes, I would take it, I’d encourage people to take it.”
Regarding whether or not he would make such a vaccine mandatory, Biden replied that it would depend on the results from the final Phase III trials on how effective the vaccine truly was, but assuming a vaccine satisfactorily passed safety test and showed high efficacy, a mandate might be advisable.
However, the former vice president noted, a nationwide federal law requiring a vaccine was likely not the best strategy. He pointed to the example of the measles vaccine, which was not required by law, but was required for a child to attend school.
Biden also said that he thought the better approach was to encouraging the use of face masks was not a national mandate, but going to the fifty state governors, the mayors of big cities, and other local and state leaders, and encouraging them to tell their people to wear masks and mandate them in their local communities.
A president has the power to lead and inspire, Biden explained, and the reverse was true as well.
“The words of a president matter,” he continued. “No matter whether they’re good, bad, or indifferent, they matter. And when a president doesn’t wear a mask, or makes fun of folks like me when I was wearing a mask, for a long time, then people say, ‘well it mustn’t be that important’…I think it matters what we say.”
Biden concluded his answer by noting that all the major studies had predicted that America would save 100,000 lives if mask wearing were more universally adopted, even more than a vaccine could save.
“And avoid lockdowns?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“And avoid lockdowns, yes,” Biden replied. “You don’t have to lockdown if you’re wearing a mask.”
Watch the video above, via ABC.
