Biden takes campaign pause for virus briefing

Six days out from Election Day, Joe Biden isn't campaigning in a swing state. Instead, he's receiving a briefing from public health experts on the coronavirus as cases of the virus surge nationwide.

Biden was briefed virtually at a theater in Wilmington, Delaware by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Dr. David Kessler, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Dr. Celine Grounder, an assistant professor at New York University's medical school, and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor of medicine at Yale University.

The Democrat sat on a stage with briefing materials before him in front of a screen with graphs showing the 7-day rolling average of reported daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations from the virus over the past four months.

Kessler warned Biden, "we are in the midst of the third wave, and I don't think anyone can tell you how high this is going to get."

According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins, more than 226,000 have died from the virus in the U.S.. Both hospitalizations and deaths are rising. Confirmed infections per day are rising in more than 40 states, and deaths are up in 34.

Biden has made the coronavirus the central focus of his campaign against President Donald Trump and has sought to draw a contrast with the president on how he'd handle the pandemic.

His campaign is careful to adhere to social distancing recommendations for all of his events, and Biden himself receives frequent briefings from public health experts on the pandemic. He's also released multiple plans focused on how he'd combat the spread of the virus and help schools and small businesses reopen safely

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