Biden's posse: Sanitizing microphones and cars to yelling 'keep back', here's how team shields him from Covid-19
The Democratic Party got its presidential nominee in Joe Biden after a long-drawn struggle and now, efforts are fully on to ensure that the veteran remains unaffected by the coronavirus that has wreaked havoc in the US by affecting more than 6.5 million people and killing nearly 200,000.
According to a report in POLITICO, Biden’s team is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the former vice president is given full health security against any probable infection from the virus. The septuagenarian’s planes and cars are “meticulously sprayed with disinfectant and scrubbed”, the report said. “The microphones, lecterns and folders he uses are wiped down in the moments before his arrival. News reporters covering the campaign have their temperature taken. People he meets are scanned in advance with thermometer wands and guests at his events are cordoned off in precise locations mapped out with a tape measure,” it said.
When Biden gets too close to others, his staff members alert him shouting: “Six feet! Six feet!" He was asked to "Keep back" by his team during a recent meeting in Wisconsin.
Biden has for months run his campaign from the basement studio at his residence in Delaware. The man, who will turn 78 in November, is hardly seen without a mask in the public or with anybody other than his wife Jill and sports one even when some members of his team who are allowed to meet him at his home pays him a visit.
The level of health discipline is such that even if someone takes a sip of water, he or she does it by turning the head away from others, as per Biden’s campaign team. The number of participants at the physical rallies are kept low and reporters covering the candidate’s events are made to observe social distancing with sticky notes marking safe spots. The strict norms were followed even during the Democratic National Convention in August where people entering the area in Wilmington where Biden spoke were made to undergo Covid-19 tests.
At a recent event of Biden in Wilmington, tapes were being used to measure the distance between people and guests were given N-95 masks even if they wore others. They were also guided to their assigned seats, reports said.
Biden's routine has been opposite to Trump
Biden’s pandemic-time routine has been in complete contrast with that of President Donald Trump, who he will challenge on November 3. The incumbent has not only dismissed the idea of wearing masks in public barring a few times and nor has his team cared to ensure people attending his rallies wear them as a precautionary measure. Trump has even mocked Biden’s mask-wearing habit and his running the campaign from the basement.
The Biden campaign has also tried to create a counter-narrative to Trump’s flouting the social-distancing measures. His campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said that one of the reasons why the Democratic candidate’s campaign has been so cautious is that it doesn’t want any more Americans to contract the virus, the POLITICO report added.
“What we consistently hear from people is that they’re frustrated by how Trump has engaged over the summer — that he doesn’t follow public health guidelines while they’re not going to funerals and are sharing in the sacrifice for six, seven months now. They’re frustrated when they see Donald Trump behaving irresponsibly at a political event,” she said.