Following news the US president had contracted the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden sent Donald Trump his best wishes from the campaign trail. Biden, three years Trump’s elder, tested negative for COVID-19 twice on Friday.
“Sending my prayers for the health and safety of the first lady and the president of the United States,” Biden told the audience at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday.
On Friday, Sean P. Conley, Trump’s personal physician, said Trump was taking an “antibody cocktail” made by Regeneron Pharmaceudicals and that the 74-year-old head of state was fatigued with a fever. His wife, 50-year-old Melania, has a mild cough and headache, and the rest of the first family has tested negative.
In his stump speech in the manufacturing town on Friday, 77-year-old Biden used the circumstance of Trump’s illness to make the case for stricter measures to combat the spread of the virus, which Trump has been ambivalent about at best.
“We can save 100,000 lives in the next 100 days according to the head of the CDC if everyone wears a mask in public,” Biden said, citing various experts, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield, with whom Trump has butted heads over preventative measures.
At the first presidential debate on Tuesday, during which Trump stood just feet from Biden, prompting fears of cross-infection leading to Biden’s Friday tests, the president made a jab at Biden’s constant wearing of masks.
More than 208,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and more than 7 million have contracted the illness. A startling report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington last month predicted that number could double to 410,000 dead by the end of the year, noting that the number falls considerably if basic safety measures such as wearing masks are used by 95% of people, but skyrockets if social distancing mandates are lifted too early.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
