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Anderson Cooper and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Anderson Cooper and former Vice President Joe Biden. Source: CNN

Former Vice President Joe Biden said during CNN’s coronavirus town hall that it was a “false choice” to have to choose between the economy and peoples’ health.

The question from CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta: “I’m hearing once you start opening things back up, people are going to get infected, some may have to go to the hospital and some may sadly die. How would you make those decisions?” 

Biden: “I err on the side of caution. Look, I think it’s a false choice to say you have to choose between the economy and our health. If you don’t fix the health side of it, the economy is never going to get right. You’re never going to be in the place where you get to remotely a new normal.”

On small businesses: “We want small business to be able to stay in business,” Biden said of hairdressers, coffee shops, nail salons and hardware stores. “If these little guys go out of business, they’re out of business. They’re not coming back, likely.”

On keeping jobs: “We should think about how we do the economy in a different way,” Biden said.

“I think we should do a situation like we did in the recovery act. Instead of employers — if they’re able to stay open — instead of them having to lay off employees, bring on everybody, keep them working. They may have one person doing 50% of the job and another person doing another 50%. I think the federal government should come in and make the difference in the salaries. Just make up the difference to keep people employed.”

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