Joe Biden admits he would defer to scientists on COVID-19, shut down country again

If there is a second spike of coronavirus, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Friday that he would shut down the country again if scientists suggested such action.

What are the details?

During an interview with ABC host David Muir, Biden admitted that, as president, he would defer to scientists if they suggested a second shutdown.

Muir asked, "If you're sworn in come January and we have coronavirus and the flu combining — which many scientists have said is a real possibility — would you be prepared to shut this country down again?"

"I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with," Biden responded. "In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing and people employed, you have to fix the virus. You have to deal with the virus."

Muir asked again, "So, if the scientists say, 'shut it down?'"

"I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists," Biden admitted.

Is shutdown good?

After most states enacted strict coronavirus lockdown measures in the spring, millions of Americans lost their jobs — and millions of Americans remain out of work — businesses shut their doors for good, and national morale crashed.

Politicians said the shutdowns were necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19, claiming at the beginning of the pandemic that it would take just 15 days to "flatten the curve."

But many states have retained their lockdown measures long past the 15 days — and the impact on the American people is alarming.

From Forbes:

The CDC conducted a survey of 5,412 people between June 24 and 30 and the collected data on suicides is alarming. Roughly 25% percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say they've considered suicide because of the pandemic. About 30.9% of the respondents said that they "had symptoms of anxiety or depression" and about 26.3% reported trauma and stress-related disorders caused by the outbreak. Over 13% said that they have used alcohol, prescription and/or illegal drugs to deal with their pandemic-induced stress and anxiety. The amount of Americans reporting anxiety symptoms is triple the number of this time last year. The CDC reported that 11% of adults surveyed had seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days.

In fact, CDC Director Robert Redfield revealed last month that younger people are dying from suicide and drug overdoses in far greater numbers than from COVID-19.

"We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID," Redfield said.