Joe Biden: ‘I Have Not Been Tested for the Coronavirus’

Joe Biden (D), during a Tuesday press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, told reporters that he has not been tested for the Chinese coronavirus.

“No I have not been protected,” Biden began before quickly correcting himself. “I have not been tested for the coronavirus for two reasons.”

“One, I have had no symptoms,” the Democrat Party’s presumptive nominee said as he knocked on wood. “As my mother would say, ‘Knock on wood.'”

Biden also said he has not been tested because he did not want to “take anybody else’s place in the process.”

However, the presidential hopeful said those in his direct vicinity, such as Secret Service and staffers, have been tested.

“But the Secret Service, they all get tested. They’re around my home. And anyone who comes into my home including staff … is tested to determine whether they have the virus,” the former vice president said, explaining that he expects he will get tested “relatively soon” and adding that his daughter, who was working in Florida, has been tested.

“But I haven’t yet,” he said. “I have not been tested yet”:

Biden largely used his Tuesday remarks to slam President Trump over his handling of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, touting his own plan to combat the virus, which was formally released on his website.

“It seems like our wartime president surrendered, waved the white flag and left the battlefield,” Biden told reporters, asserting that Trump has “failed us.”

He said in part:

Despite the administration’s propaganda that their response should be cause for celebration, despite President Trump’s request that we should slow down testing because he thinks it makes him look bad, the Covid-19 is still here and the daily threat to the American health and prosperity is continuing. It didn’t have to be this way. Month after month, as other leaders in other countries took the necessary steps to get the virus under control, Donald Trump failed us. Month after month, as many of us urged him to step up and do his job, he failed us.

“We absolutely need a clear message from the very top of the federal government that everyone needs to wear a mask in public. Period,” he added.