President Biden visited the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in Georgia on Friday and praised health officials for ‘changing things’ to ‘make them healthier’ amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden visited the CDC with Vice President Harris.
“Science is back,” Biden said. “I hope this is the beginning of the end of not paying attention.”
The president said: “We can build all the walls and have the most powerful army in the world, but we can not stop viruses.”
Biden told CDC staff “you have changed things.”
“Even though the whole government changed tomorrow, you changed things,” he said. “Changed things to make everyone healthier.”
Referring to the novel coronavirus, the president said, “This is a war and you are the frontline troops.”
He added: “I come to say thank you. You change the psyche of the country, you change lives.
“We are the only country in the world that has come out stronger than when we entered,” Biden continued. “That’s who we are.”
The vice president added that the administration is ‘without any question about science’.
Harris calls the CDC a model for the world, which ‘makes decisions based on science, hard work and commitment to public health’.
“You are doing this work on behalf of the people you will never meet, who will never know your names, because you care about our country and their well-being,” Harris said. “So we’re here to help you.”
CDC director Rochelle Walensky thanked the president and vice president, saying that as long as she is in her post, the CDC “commits everything we do to the fairness, science and health of the American people.”