Joe Biden Rebukes Trump and Issues Virus Plan: ‘The Clock Is Ticking’

Members included Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon general; Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a prominent oncologist and a vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania; and Lisa Monaco, who served as a homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Mr. Obama. And when he spoke on Thursday, he did so against a backdrop of American flags, reading from teleprompters to the click of cameras and beginning with a nod to his “fellow Americans,” a setting reminiscent of a White House address.

“No president can promise to prevent future outbreaks,” he said. “But I can promise you this. When I’m president, we will be better prepared, respond better and recover better. We’ll lead with science. We’ll listen to the experts. We’ll heed their advice. And we’ll build American leadership and rebuild it to rally the world to meet the global threats.”

Throughout his remarks, Mr. Biden nodded — as he often does — to what he cast as the resiliency and potential of the American people.

“In the difficult days ahead, I know that this country will summon the spirit, the empathy, the decency and the unity needed because in times of crisis, the American people always, always stand as one if told the truth,” he said. “We’ll meet this challenge together. I’m confident of it. But we have to move, and move now.”

Mr. Biden, who is 77, did not stop to take shouted questions about his own health.

He has previously sketched out other steps he would take as president to fight the virus, noting his work as vice president in combating Ebola and describing Obama administration priorities like bolstering funding to fight that disease. Ron Klain, who was Mr. Obama’s Ebola “czar,” is a top Biden adviser.

Mr. Biden has also said that he would insist on transparency from China, where the coronavirus outbreak began, and has expressed shock and frustration with Mr. Trump’s past skeptical remarks about the severity of the virus.

“I wish he would just be quiet, I really mean it,” Mr. Biden said in an interview this week with Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC. “Just let the experts speak and acknowledge whatever they suggest to him is what we should be doing.”