Biden says public health experts recommend 10 people max at Thanksgiving gatherings

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Biden: Experts suggest capping Thanksgiving gatherings at 10 people

President-elect discusses health guidance for holiday gatherings in Wilmington, Del.

President-elect Joe Biden says that public health experts tell him they recommend limiting Thanksgiving family gatherings to 10 people or fewer as the coronavirus pandemic surges again across the country.

After he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris met with business and union leaders in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., on Monday, Biden said President Trump’s refusal to concede the election was “embarrassing for the country.”

COMPARING THE MODERNA AND PFIZER CORONAVIRUS VACCINES

The former vice president also called promising reports on vaccine developments “great news,” and said he “wouldn’t hesitate” to get vaccinated if it’s deemed safe by top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. And Biden said that the sooner he and his team are given access to the Trump administration’s vaccine distribution plans, “the sooner this transition would be smoothly moved forward.”

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris attend a briefing on the economy at The Queen theater, Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

And while he praised both Democratic and Republican governors for their mask mandates, he avoided taking a stance on whether he'd support reimplementing stay-at-home orders.

Taking questions from reporters with a week and a half to go until Thanksgiving, Biden said that his team of public health experts recommend limiting family gathering to a maximum of 10 people, socially distanced and wearing masks, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The president-elect said he and his wife, Jill Biden, “spent this morning, like many of you, trying to figure out what are we going to do for Thanksgiving. How are we going to do it. And we’ve narrowed down which family members and that they were tested, recently tested.”

“I would strongly urge, for sake of your children, your mother, your father, your sisters, your brothers, whoever you get together on Thanksgiving, think about this. There should be no group more than 10 people," Biden stressed

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And making another pitch for people to wear masks, Biden emphasized that “there’s nothing macho about not wearing a mask.”

Biden spoke hours after the drug maker Moderna announced that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective, joining the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer as front-runners in the worldwide race to create a vaccine to stem the worst pandemic in a century. The coronavirus has been linked to nearly 1.2 million deaths across the globe, and nearly a quarter of million people in the U.S.

“It is great news that Moderna and Pfizer have each come up with vaccines that are in excess of 90% effectiveness,” Biden said. But he noted that “getting a vaccine, and a vaccination though, are two different things.”

Biden said, “I wouldn’t hesitate to get the vaccine if in fact Dr. Fauci and these two organizations, whether it’s Moderna or Pfizer, who have been extremely responsible, conclude that it is safe and able to be done. The only reason people question the vaccine now is Donald Trump.”

The president-elect highlighted that everyone on his call with business and union leaders “agreed that the sooner we have access to the administration's [vaccine] distribution plan, the sooner this transition would be smoothly moved forward.”

It was projected more than a week ago by Fox News, the other news networks and the Associated Press, that Biden would win the state of Nevada and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, giving the Democratic presidential nominee the electoral votes needed to defeat Trump and become president-elect. But Trump has yet to concede, as he hopes that a spate of apparent longshot lawsuits he’s filed and a couple of recounts in key states will reverse Biden’s victory.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ELECTION RESULTS FROM FOX NEWS

General Services Administration (GSA) chief Emily Murphy, who was appointed by Trump, has yet to sign a letter of “ascertainment,” which until now was a mostly controversial-free process of declaring the winner of the White House race, allowing access to the federal agencies, and to the funding of the transition.

Trump on Sunday appeared for the first time to acknowledge that Biden had won the election. But he later highlighted on Twitter that "I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go." And on Monday the president claimed on Twitter that “I won the Election!”

Asked for his reaction to Trump’s tweets, Biden said, “I interpret that as Trumpism … no change in his modus operandi.” And he added that “I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started.”

Biden said that if the administration doesn’t recognize his victory and allow for the normal transition period, he would “deal with every individual organization in the country, from business to labor, Republicans and Democrats, to try to pull together a serious and consistent plan so we’re ready on day one.”

But he added, “It would make it a lot easier if the president were to participate.”

Without the administration’s greenlighting to allow for the transition to begin, the president-elect will not receive intelligence briefings or get access to the government’s COVID data and intelligence.

Pointing to the vicepresident-elect, who currently sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Biden said of Harris, “The good news is my colleague is still on the Intelligence Committee, so she gets the intelligence briefings. I don’t anymore.”

And he added, “I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to Jan. 20.”

But he slammed Trump for what he said was a lack of action in combating COVID-19. “The idea that the president is still playing golf and not doing anything about it is beyond my comprehension. You’d at least think he’d want to go off on a positive note.”

Biden said his message to congressional Republicans, most of whom were standing with the president in refusing to acknowledge Biden’s victory until the legal battles play out, was that “I will work with you. I understand a lot of your reluctance because of the way the president operates. I've been in contact with them and I’ll be in contact with more of them as we move along.”