Former Vice President Joe Biden struggled to recall the names of several viruses during Sunday evening’s Democratic debate on CNN.
Just two questions into the debate, Biden misstated “H1N1” as “N1H1” and couldn’t remember “Ebola” at all, referring instead to “the thing in Africa.”
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Moderator Jake Tapper asked Biden to respond to President Donald Trump’s claim that regulations and red tape, in place before he took office, caused delays in testing for coronavirus. (RELATED: Democrats’ Impeachment Lawyer Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Blames Trump For ‘Gaslighting’ America)
Biden responded by saying that the World Health Organization had offered testing kits which Trump had refused, and went on to explain what he believed should happen next.
“We’re in a situation where we have to now be providing for the hospitals that are going to be needed. Needed now,” Biden explained. “The present system can cannot handle the surge that is likely to come. So we should already be sitting down and planning where we’re going to put these temporary hospitals. And we can do that.”
“We have been through this before with the coronavirus,” Biden continued. “We have — excuse me with dealing with the viruses — the N1H1 and as well as what happened in Africa. We provided these hospitals dealing with these great pandemics and we were able to do it quickly. People would have a place to go. But we need equipment to protect the first responders, and that’s not being done either.”