Joe Biden & Susan Rice Moderate Roundtable with Black Essential Workers Transcript February 23

Susan Rice: (00:00)
A disproportionate number of black Americans serve as front line workers and as first responders, putting yourselves at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. And one in four deaths from COVID-19 have been those of black Americans. And so during this Black History Month, we wanted to say thank you, to lift up your voices and your service and your needs. The President’s American Rescue Plan, if passed by Congress, will bring an end to this pandemic and it will invest in you and your fellow front line workers and all Americans so we can keep ourselves safe and rebuild our economy so that it works for everyone. Mr. President, joining us here today are Demetrius Alfred, he goes by Al, who is a-

Joe Biden: (00:00)
[inaudible 00:00:00] Mr. President.

Susan Rice: (00:00)
Al is a firefighter and EMT in St. Louis, Missouri. And we have Melanie Owens, a pharmacist in Chicago; Carmen Palmer, a childcare worker in Columbus, Ohio; and Jeff Carter, a grocery store manager in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Thank you all so much for being here today and for sharing your stories with us. Mr. President, over to you.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Well, thanks for joining us, everyone. I’ve met Al before and Al, thank you for all the help in the past. And we’re going to try and help now, you and the firefighters and EMTs. And Melanie, I understand you’re the, what, second or third generation pharmacist in your family? Is that right?

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Yes.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Well, that’s pretty impressive. That’s pretty impressive. And Carmen, you do God’s work, dealing with all those little kids and trying to figure out how you do it now and how you can safely open and how you can make it work.

Carmen Palmer: (00:00)
I guess, it’s a pleasure dealing with children.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Well, I’ll tell you what. We need you badly. And Jeff, you have too damn many Hy-Vees around the state. I mean, I tell you what. It was always a debate whether I stopped at a Hy-Vee or whether I find a frozen custard stand. But that’s what we did in Iowa. But all kidding aside, you all are basically holding the country together. I’m not being facetious. I’m being deadly earnest. You can see the looks on people’s faces when they walk into your drugstore and they stand at the counter and they ask for a prescription, can’t you? You can see the fear in their eyes, especially if they’ve gotten an unwelcome analysis like two of your family members have, Al.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
And so what I want to do today is I want you to know there’s that old bad joke, “I’m from the federal government, I’m here to help.” But we are from the federal government and we want to help. I want to help a lot. There hasn’t been, most states, you’re from four different states, and we got St. Louis, Chicago, Columbus, and Cedar Rapids. And every state, as you know, has a slightly different approach to how to deal with COVID right now. And we’re trying to make sure they get all that they need, each of those states, and we’re focusing, as the former ambassador said, we’re focusing on the needs particularly of the most left behind community, the African-American community.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
It really is across the board. But on this area specifically. As, I might add, are the Latino communities, being left behind. Not as much, but similarly. And Pacific Islanders. So there’s a lot of work to do, and that’s why we want to talk to you, is to see whether we’re headed in the right direction. So I’m here, eager to hear what’s on their minds, Susan. See what you’re thinking. What you think we should be doing. And now, I know the guy from Iowa, Jeff, he’ll ask any questions because Iowans are so spoiled. They can ask every presidential candidate. “Come on, can you come over hear and sit down with me for a few minutes. I want to talk to you. Right, Jeff?”

Jeff Carter: (00:00)
Right.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
So you know me. But all kidding aside, I’m anxious to hear what’s on your mind, what you think we should be doing. And then maybe in the process ask a few questions and tell you the kinds of things we’re doing to try to deal with what are, we think, I hope, are the problems of the people who are keeping us floating. You’re the ones that keep us going. Not a joke. You are the ones that keep us going. And kept the country going. You’re carrying it on your back. And so thank you for what you’ve done so far. We got a lot more to do.

Susan Rice: (00:00)
Thank you, Mr. President. I’d like to begin by introducing our first speaker, Demetrius “Al” Alfred. We’d like to hear from each of you about your experiences during COVID, but Al, first I’d like to ask you to tell us about yourself. You’re a 30-year firefighter and EMT in St. Louis. You’re the president of your local union and president, also, of the Missouri State Council of Firefighters. You and your fellow workers have been through a great deal, and we’d love to hear your experiences over the last couple years.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Before you start, you heard that old expression, “God made man, then he made a few firefighters.” Thank you.

Demetrius Alfred: (00:00)
Yes, sir. Yeah. Thank you, thank you. And good afternoon, Ambassador Rice and Mr. President. It’s a pleasure to be here and an honor to be able to speak to you, and good to see you again, Mr. President. We have met before and I enjoy your company every time. Let me start out by saying in St. Louis, the firefighters have had a tough time with COVID. Going on calls we’ve had to change up our direction on protocol a little bit with masking up and six feet social distancing. We’ve even changed the protocol that when we go on medical runs and calls, people trapped in a house, and even fires, we approach them a little bit different. We have to wear face masks.

If we just talk about medical calls, we have to wear face masks and show up. And then we don’t send the entire crew in anymore. We’ll try to send in one guy to check out the situation. And if we can possibly get the patient to come inside and then do the assessment, and things like that. So we’ve really had to make some changes. We had to really look towards the government, local and state and federal, to try to get our PPE so we could go on these calls and protect ourselves and protect the citizens. And if you’re talking about the vaccine, we’ve been trying to get in line there here in Missouri and get as many guys vaccinated as possible so we can keep serving the community.

But make no bones about it, St. Louis firefighters are here. We answer every call. We are resourceful and we adapt very well, and we’re ready to go. We just would like the support from federal government, local, and state to keep us afloat so we can have the equipment and things to keep us going to do our job. We’ll appreciate everything you guys can do for us.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Al, let me ask you. If you had to identify the one thing you could wave a wand, the one thing that could help your women and men, firefighters and EMTs, what do you need the most?

We would like to make sure that we can get the funding down to the local level and to the fire departments in particular. So, like I said, we can still purchase the PPE to sustain us, get our equipment and things like that. And, most importantly, we’d like to get support so we wouldn’t have budget cuts or have to endure any pay cuts or layoff. That’s a big worry because, like I said, we respond to everything. We show up ready to go. Very resourceful, and we adapt very well. But then, after things are over, once the crisis has passed, it appears that sometimes the local government or management, however you want to look at it, find that the department may be easy to cut because the crisis is over. And that’s one of our biggest concerns.

So you asked me if I had a magic wand, I would say that I’d wave that wand to make sure that we get the proper funding to sustain our jobs so we can respond and help the citizens of our community.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Well, that’s what we do in this legislation we put together. And I hope, God, it’s going to pass. We provide for resources, 350 billion dollars for emergency funding for state, local, and territorial governments. Now we’ve got 340 million people in America. We got a big country. And so what’s happened is a lot of states have decided that they, because they have to balance their budgets, they can’t continue to spend the same amount of revenue they were spending before. And what’s happening is a lot of everything from firefighters to schoolteachers to a whole range of people are being laid off. We’re short 6,000 teachers, firefighters.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
And the only thing I know working with your outfit, Al, for so long, is that the only thing that keeps firefighters safe is more firefighters. Literally.

Yes, sir.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Literally.

Yeah.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
And so you’re being cut. We also find, provide for 160 billion dollars for supplies. And that would be everything from making sure we can scale vaccine distribution and testing, make sure everybody can get in there and have an opportunity to get the test. EMTs and firefighters are, when we get that done, we’re going to have one less crisis you have to deal with. But look. The funds we’re talking about are designed to keep teachers and school workers on the job, including childcare, invest in personal protective equipment. I understand from a story I was told that you have the personal protective equipment in St. Louis but they don’t have it in Kansas City. The firefighters.

Yes.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
And also to reduce… Just increase capacity across the board. So we owe you a lot. My family owes you a particularly lot. You literally, as you know when we talked, you saved my life. EMTs in my state saved my life. Got me down to a hospital in time to save my life. And my boys. Saved their lives, too. The jaws of life. Much earlier. So we owe you big. But what I want to do is make sure you… Get more specific with you and find out whether or not you have access to get in line.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Last thing. States set the priorities for who gets the vaccine. We have now gone from having a shortage of vaccines to, by the end of July, we’ll have over 600 million doses of vaccine. Enough to take care of everybody in the country. And we’re moving, as Ms. Owens knows, we’re moving to make sure that drug stores, pharmacies, are going to be able to be a place, just like for flu shots, you can go. We’ve just gone from… Because we find that that’s more accessible to an awful lot of folks who don’t have the means to travel very far, don’t have the access to get to where they need to go, and they’re used to their pharmacy and they know their pharmacist. They can get a shot.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
And we’ve gone from this week, last week, one million doses to pharmacies to two million this week. So with the grace of God and the good will of neighbors we’re going to be able to significantly increase that. And Carmen, I’m pushing really hard, I mean this sincerely, for day cares to be able to open. And you need financial help to open. You can’t just open just straight up. But we’ll talk about that a little bit as we go on. I don’t want to take too much time at the front end here.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
So, look, Al, just don’t be shy about letting us know what you need. And what you need in Missouri is not fundamentally different than what people need in Kansas and people need in Iowa and people need in Illinois, et cetera. So we ought to talk some more, okay?

Absolutely, Mr. President. And you know our famous saying. We have your back.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
You have, man. As one of your guys said, “You have my back so much you’re breaking my shoulders.” Pushing him.

That’s all right.

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Anyway, thank you, Al.

Susan Rice: (00:00)
Mr. President, next I’d like to introduce Melanie Owens. Melanie, as you know, is a pharmacist on the south side of Chicago. Melanie actually contracted COVID herself last March and has now been vaccinated, and she’s been administering vaccines to people in her community. Melanie, please give us a sense of your story.

Melanie Owens: (00:00)
Hi, Mr. President, and thank you very much, Ambassador Rice. It is an honor and a privilege to be here with you, and thank you for allowing me to share a small part of my story. As she said, I am a pharmacist in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. I’m a pharmacy manager, and I began my career with Walgreens nearly 20 years ago. And it was the opportunity to help care for others in our communities that helped me become a pharmacist. And it didn’t hurt that both of my parents are pharmacists as well.

I also have a sister who’s a nurse, and my brother [Eli 00:14:25] is an engineer for the fire department, so we’re all front line workers. I did contract COVID in March of 2020 when the tests weren’t readily available. So I was not able to get tested, but thankfully, with Walgreens, I was able to quarantine for 14 days with no interruption of work or pay. But my symptoms and subsequent antibody test did prove that I had COVID at that time, so I can really relate to what others are going through. And it has helped me to become more motivated than ever to do all I can to help the community during this pandemic. It’s been a really tough year for us, but…

It’s been a really tough year for us but recently it’s been very rewarding to start being able to go to the longterm care facilities and vaccinate the residents there and also now it’s available in the stores. My pharmacy personally is in a low middle class, a predominantly black neighborhood and lots of the people are surprised that it’s very convenient and the ease of the vaccination process once they pass the scheduling portal so I just encourage everyone to be aware that the vaccine is here to help make sure that they are making their neighbors and friends and family aware of their experience as they get the shots taken care of and let them know that we are here to help them. Everyone had that assumption that they would have to go out far away to find the vaccine but I think it’s an awesome thing that we’re starting to roll it out in these communities, in all communities and hopefully it continues to become available.

We also, Walgreens has started a health equity program in my store where we’re making it more convenient also for customers to get their prescriptions delivered to them or personal reminding calls to let them know that their prescriptions are ready so that they aren’t forgetting about the basics but they don’t have to worry about the social distancing and coming in contact with other people that they don’t want to leave their homes or uncomfortable. But I got my second vaccine February 5 and I just make sure I tell everybody that it was a wonderful experience. I feel very grateful to be able to have gotten it along with the longterm facility workers and I just want everybody to keep doing what they’re doing and make sure that we’re all doing what we need to do to get back to some kind of normalcy so President Biden, please keep rolling out the vaccine because it is helping to keep people alive and safe so with that I just want to say thank you again for this opportunity. I never thought I’d be able to speak directly with the President of the United States, and especially on Zoom, so thank you so much for that.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
Well thank you Melanie. Look, let me ask you a couple questions. You’re in the south side of Chicago, that’s where my kids’ grandparents are from.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
Awesome.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
People are … They don’t have a whole lot of money, and a lot of people don’t … It’s an older population these days.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
Yeah.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
One of the things that I’ve observed is that there is a reluctance to … They don’t know how to get online with you, a lot of people don’t know how to use that, they may not have a cellphone. They may not have the ability to know how to pick the phone up and get online and so they’re reluctant and so what I found is from the days when my dad was raising me was that sometimes people, when they don’t know what to do, they’re embarrassed to acknowledge they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know how to get it done. So how important do you think it is … One more piece of this. We also know because of the way American medicine has taken advantage of African-Americans for experimentation over the last 100 years that there’s a real reluctance that still exists in the African-American community to get the vaccination, even if it’s available. I’ve been pleading with people, get it. If you have a chance, get it. It will save not only your life potentially but it will save your family a little bit.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
So tell me about what you’ve sensed. I can tell you have a feel for this. I really mean it. Tell me what you sense from your patients who come in to get the shot. Is it … I don’t think they’re afraid of a needle, it’s not like, “Oh, a needle,” but are they reluctant to deal with it or is because you’re an African-American woman they respect, does that make it easier for them to be able to take the?

Joe Biden: (14:25)
I would say that my customer base for the most part is very excited. We haven’t had many people come discussing whether or not we would get it ourselves or should they get it, it’s more when can they get it. I was more reluctant than most people … Most of my customers to get it actually but then it just kind of felt like an obligation when I started to go to longterm care facilities. I’m here to protect them, so I needed it, and just listening to my parents who are in their seventies so were so eager to get it and I was happy to be able to help them get it, it just … It helped to change my mind and I also had some administrative staff at the first longterm care facility that I went to change their mind based on me changing mine at their moment to get it so … I mean I think it’s just you can be fearful, you can have questions, but do your due diligence and figure out what is best for you and like I said earlier if this is a part of a major key of what’s going to help us move past this and go back to being able to live normally, I feel like we should do it. It’s no harm in it.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
Well we’ve been able to increase the supply to the states and just in the month we’ve been here by 57%. So they’re getting 57% more vaccine than they did before and we’re going to, God willing, we’re going to be in a position where we can significantly increase that as well so that … The other thing is, we have set up … We made another federal decision saying that we are going to use community health facilities, which usually take care of the folks who are the most in need and because they know where … I’m not being facetious when I say this, they know where the people sleeping under the bridge are. They know where people who are really in real dire straits who … They’re going out to get them to get them vaccinated so we’re helping that this helps.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
In addition, one of the things we’re going to be able to do is part of this investment is $20 billion in the national vaccination program. As you know the funding helps deploy community vaccinators and vaccination centers. You’re one of them, you’re in the community, that’s why … Some of the governors were not sure that’s the way to go, that we … And I’m not picking on any governor, I really mean it. They do not understand why we made the independent decision to send vaccines directly to 600 and some … 67 different drug chains or drug stores out there, why we send it directly to them and they weren’t sure why we are sending them directly to child care facilities. That’s what we’re going to try to do now and so … Because they thought they could better decide where to use it but I am determined to make sure we service the communities that are the ones that are the most victimized by … Victimized wrong word, most affected by, most affected by the COVID virus when they get it and the consequences of it. But I thank you for all you do and I really mean it and for going to those in those longterm care facilities and helping there as well so thank you very much.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
Thank you.

Susan Rice: (14:25)
Thank you Melanie. Mr. President, our third participant as you know is Carmen Palmer. Carmen is a childcare worker in Columbus, Ohio, but I say childcare worker but that really doesn’t do it justice. She does almost everything there is to do.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
That’s what I read.

Susan Rice: (14:25)
She runs the food program at the childcare center, she’s a substitute teacher, she’s a bus driver when needed, and she’s also the mother of two of her own young children. So Carmen, we’d love to hear your story.

Joe Biden: (14:25)
You obviously have a lot of spare time, Carmen.

Of course. I just wanted to say thank you President Biden and Ambassador Rice for speaking with me and giving me this opportunity, I do appreciate that, [inaudible 00:23:53]. I am Carmen Palmer. You know I’m born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I grew up in foster care and after graduating high school that’s when I decided for a better environment and I moved to Ohio and that’s where I found my home here at Kiddie Academy. I’ve been working here five years and as Ambassador Rice mentioned my two children both attend the childcare facility.

I started working there as a toddler teacher and I was offered to share my skills in the kitchen as the kids will call me the school chef because I think it’s cool to cook sometimes. I thought that was rewarding just to combine my love for cooking and children and my role is to ensure not only our zero to five children eat but our school-agers as well. I love providing [inaudible 00:24:46] nutritious meals because I know what it’s like not to eat or know when my next meal is coming from especially growing up in foster care.

I’m a single mother and COVID has exposed not only the flaws in the childcare system but how frail my personal situation is. I work every single day, you know, during the pandemic. I have not missed one day to try to take care of our families and our children who need care. Me personally, if I was to get COVID or my kids was to get COVID, I have no other options. I am one of the only states that has not prioritized childcare for the vaccine and that’s concerning to me because once again I work every single day in the pandemic and I’m … I’m an essential worker and I am taking care of essential workers’ kids. As a parent, I want to make sure I have child care and child care that is safe. [inaudible 00:25:48] have installed ionizers to improve our ventilation system and I can only assume that is working. We provide [inaudible 00:25:58], we are washing our hands, we social distance, we do temperature checks but it’s hard for the kids because they’re used to … “I want to go play with my friends,” we’re like, “No, you have to social distance. We have to keep our distance.” It’s hard keeping the younger kids who keep their masks up to protect themselves.

Our enrollment is down and we are seeing less of our families because of the pandemic. They’re not working and they’re losing their jobs and I’m just really grateful that I’m able to still work during the pandemic and that’s important to me to keep my employment.

Susan Rice: (25:48)
Thank you Carmen.

Joe Biden: (27:01)
Well Carmen, look. This legislation which we think is going to pass is going to help childcare providers by allowing you to pay the rent, pay your utilities, your payroll if there is one, [inaudible 00:27:01] as well as increased costs associated with the pandemic. Those costs include PPE, you mentioned ventilation, paying for ventilation improvement, small group sizes, modifications to make physical environment, inside safer by providing more dividers. We’re also temporarily going to increase the childcare tax credit. Right now if you make over a certain amount of money, you will get a tax credit of $2,000.00 now. We’re going to raise that to $3, 000.00 per child and $3, 600. 00 per child under the age of six and make it refundable which is the big deal because if you’re not making a lot of money and not paying taxes, you may have two or three kids, you don’t get any help at all but now what will happen is, if this passes, they will get a refundable credit for each child, if they’re under six, $3,600. 00 check from the federal government. The same thing for the $2,000. 00 and so on.

Joe Biden: (27:01)
They say we’ll cut … If we get this done, we’ll cut child poverty in half, but in addition to that, we’ll provide those parents with access to not only your day care center but others across the country, they would be able to afford it and we’re also making sure that we provide money for folks who are about to be thrown out of their homes or there’s millions of people out there who can’t pay the rent and so we’ve deferred any costs to have to pay the rent while this pandemic is going on because otherwise we’d just have … We’d be vastly increasing the homeless population which makes no sense. We know how important early childhood education and child development is and to get through this crisis I think we need to be sure childcare providers have the funding they need to stay afloat and you mentioned something Carmen that was really important. Most of these kids you’d be taking care of if they were going to kindergarten or preschool, they’d be getting a free lucnh program.

Joe Biden: (29:41)
Well we got to increase the amount of money available for what used to be called the food stamp program but it is not now but we got to make more … Make it available because did you ever think you’d see … [inaudible 00:29:41] in your hometown where you’d see miles of cars lined up in multiple lanes waiting for one box of food? This is the United States of America for God’s sake, and the idea there’s that much food insecurity is just not right. I believe if we get this bill passed which we’re not going to –

Joe Biden: (29:41)
… if we get this bill passed, which we’re not going to pass by a lot, but we’re optimistic, we’re going to make some real changes, and the childcare centers are at risk of closing all around the country. What impact would it have, and the last question I’ll ask, if you had to shut down, what do you think it would do to the children and the parents that now are your clients?

It would have a tremendous impact on our families. Our families are telling us now that they can’t work, and it’s definitely hard to find childcare if you don’t have any employment. And then me as myself, I honestly wouldn’t know what I would do if I didn’t have childcare so I could go to work, because I have no family here. All my family is back home in Michigan.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
Okay, kiddo, keep doing what you’re doing.

Thank you.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
As my mom would say, you’re doing God’s work, kid.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Ambassador Rice: (30:00)
Mr. President, Carmen is also the only one with young kids in school. I thought it might be worth just asking her to say a few words about how her kids have fared in the pandemic with virtual schooling and then now hybrid schooling.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
Are you able to take them to the daycare for the hybrid schooling?

Yes, I am. I actually made the joke with Ambassador Rice yesterday on saying, I really fear for my youngest son. He’s seven and he’s a thumb-sucker and I for sure knew he was going to get COVID because I’m like, “You just keep putting your hands in your mouth.” I enrolled them in virtual and then my oldest daughter, her grades, she started to struggle. I was like, “Okay, you needed the help.” So I switched her over to hybrid. So on Monday and Tuesdays, they attend school to get the help that they need, that one-on-one. And then Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays, they attend the daycare. And our teachers there are willing to help assist them with their hybrid learning. But sometimes, not only just my kids, but all the kids as well are dealing with their social-emotional needs of social distancing and really can’t go anywhere but just school and home. So we have to deal with those aspects of the kids as well.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
Well, an awful lot of children, as well as adults, are going through some real… They need some help in terms of depression and mental problems. I mean, we’re worried about their… They’re just so off. They don’t know exactly what’s going on and it has real impacts. That’s why we got to get them back into school. That’s why we have to open up these schools.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
By the way, a lot of you out there are struggling just to make ends meet, even if you have a job, but we’re going to make sure you get that extra $1,400 check during the pandemic, that both parties said they support it. Even the past president said he strongly supported it. We just got to get it done now. But it’ll make a difference and give you some just literally, some breathing room, just a little breathing room. That’s what we need to give people right now. Because everybody in this circumstance is being hurt. It’s through no fault of their own. It’s not their fault that the pandemic started.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
Well, thank you.

You’re welcome, Mr. President. Thank you.

Mr. President, last but by no means least, I wanted to introduce Jeff Carter. Jeff is the district store manager of two Hy-Vee grocery stores in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jeff, we’d love to hear your story too.

Thank you very much, Mr. President and Ambassador Rice. I really appreciate the opportunity that I’ve been given to speak with you and kind of tell my story a little bit. As I said, my name is Jeff Carter. I am married to my wife, Kim Carter and we’ve been married for about 25 years. I do have an older son. His name is Mason. He works as a finance officer in one of the major car dealerships here in Cedar Rapids.

I work for Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee is a grocery store chain and we have stores in Iowa, and as you mentioned, Mr. President, we have too many stores in Iowa, but we also have stores in Nebraska, Illinois, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin and Minnesota, so we are-

Joe Biden: (30:00)
I was teasing you.

I know. But we’re a great company and really have appreciated the opportunity that I have to work for them. We employ over 88,000 employees. During this past year, the pandemic has really challenged us to not only focus on service to our customers and our employees, but also safety. We really had to shift our focus rapidly on how we take care of our customers, how we make sure that they are safe when they come in the stores. We were one of the first stores to install plexiglass shields to protect our employees and our customers. We also put directional arrows on our floors to create social distancing, so that people didn’t crowd and possibly spread the virus.

In my store and all of our stores, we had employees that from the moment we opened until we closed, all they did was walk around the store and sanitize and clean, and clean contact areas that customers and employees touch just to make sure that the virus was limited in the possibility that it might spread. We also installed a system called Sterile Cart, that we could push our grocery carts through in order to sanitize them and make sure that our customers were safe.

We mandated masks for all of our employees. We passed out millions of masks. I don’t know if millions, but thousands of masks to our customers to have in case they didn’t have their own when they came in our stores. We have a Mask-it-Up campaign, asking and requiring everybody to wear a mask when they come in our stores.

Through all this, I’m very, very proud of all of the employees that I work with and employees of all of our stores because I don’t think we really consider ourselves frontline workers. As we are essential workers, when we’re doing our jobs, but as a lot of us talk from day-to-day, we felt that as many people that we were in contact with, for many of us, it wasn’t a matter if we were going to catch the virus, it was a matter of when we were going to catch the virus. But through all this, and many of our employees, they put themselves on the front lines. And they did not shy away from doing their job and taking care of our customers and making sure the needs were met. I think because of a lot of the systems that we put in place, we had cases where employees did catch the virus, but I think our numbers were surprisingly low because of some of the safety measures that we put in place.

Through all that, many of our employees, some were a little bit concerned about going to work because they had maybe family members at home that had underlying health conditions that might put them at risk of catching the virus and possibly falling very sick, or worse, possible death. But they still came to work to help serve our customers and do their job.

On top of that, in Cedar Rapids, on August 10th, we had a major weather event, called derecho, that rolled through our city.

Joe Biden: (30:00)
That was amazing.

It was an amazing event that I had never ever witnessed, and I’d never even heard the word derecho prior to that. We had winds of up to 120 miles an hour go through and destroy property and trees. Many trees were lost. In fact, I actually have a campaign right now where we are, as Hy-Vee, we are getting thousands of trees into the city and surrounding areas, that we can replace those trees that were lost. Many homes were damaged. Many of our employees’ homes were damaged, but still, I think they put a lot of their personal concerns on the back burner, to still come in and help serve our customers. During this derecho, we also went out into our communities and helped pass out free goods, groceries and things like that to people in need. Many people were without power for approximately a week that the city was without power.

We were doing whatever we could to help the community. So not only did we have the COVID to deal with, we also had a derecho that rolled through, which was another amazing challenge. But we still persevered, and very I’m proud and happy for the job that Hy-Vee and our employees were able to do, and customers alike. We all rallied together to get through this.

So now, as I mentioned before, and part of that with the derecho, I have to mention that Ambassador Rice mentioned that I am in charge of two stores. I actually had three stores, but one of our stores was badly damaged in the derecho and we had to close it and tear it down because the damage was too far to repair the store. But we were able to relocate all the employees that worked at the store and now they are employed elsewhere at other stores.

But now, I’d like to move forward with what I call, I think we’re in the recovery phase, I guess, of hopefully this virus. We’ve dealt with trying to hold it at bay, keep people from catching it. Now I think we’re in the phase of hopefully, vaccinating people so that we can move through this, so that hopefully one day we’ll be able to take down those plexiglass shields and get rid of these masks that we no longer have to wear, maybe give a customer a handshake or a hug, thanking them for coming in. And Hy-Vee is ready. We’re ready to help you, as Demetris said, we’ve got your back.

Like I said, I have two stores, and like Melanie, we are vaccinating as well. We have just recently, sent our pharmacy team from one of my stores to a long-term care facility, and we vaccinated 120 senior citizens in that facility that had not been probably out of that facility for probably a year. And the stories that I got back from my pharmacy manager, telling me that people literally had tears in their eyes from the relief and the hope that they someday soon will be able to see their loved ones again, face-to-face, instead behind a window or a computer screen.

Well, Mr. President, we have pharmacists, we have pharmacy techs, we have about nine mobile units ready to go out to the communities, to reach people that possibly cannot get the vaccine. We can go to them. We recently had an event at Drake University, that we vaccinated over 1,000 people. I think things like this, we are capable, we are ready to do to help you, because we have your back as well. I think what we really need is we have like I said, stores in multiple states. We just need to get the vaccine delivered so that we can go out and do our thing. We are ready to help.

And once again, I very much appreciate this opportunity. It’s like a dream come true. It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. I’ll probably watch this video over and over again. Thank you very much.

Joe Biden: (31:30)
Jeff, it’s an honor for the Ambassador and me to be able to talk to you. Look, one of the things that the Ambassador and I made the decision early on to quote Franklin Roosevelt. I’m going to give it to you straight from the shoulder. I’m not going to play games. I’ll tell you when we do it right and I’ll tell you when we screwed up. And I’ll tell you we take responsibility. That’s what I think all of you are doing. You’re giving it straight to the people you’re working with and the people you’re trying to help. And we spend much too much time ignoring this.

Joe Biden: (42:57)
One of the things you’ve all mentioned is the PPE, the protective gear, and social distancing. I know that Melanie knows this as a pharmacist, and all of you know it from your experience, that the way… We can say we could have saved literally an awful lot of lives if people had listened. We turned wearing masks into a political statement. If you were for this thing, you wear it or for somebody else, you didn’t wear it. When in fact, it’s just plain basic science. It’s science. It’s social distancing, so you’re not coughing on one another, the particles. The ventilation you talked about Carmen, makes a difference in community centers and alike. And so there’s so many things that we can do that are just within our own power.

Joe Biden: (43:07)
We’re probably going to be sending out an awful lot of masks around the country very shortly, millions of them. But the point is that you all, interesting, without my asking you, talked about the need to social distance. It’s kind of hard to social distance in a fire truck. It’s kind of hard to social distance with an EMT in a back of a wagon. But you all know it’s important and so I hope you’ll… I had said when I got elected that my first 100 days, I guaranteed people we’d get at least 100 million shots in people’s arms. 100 million shots in people’s arms. 30 days in, we’re about 40% of the way there. What do we have? 47…

Almost 50 million.

Joe Biden: (43:07)
Almost 50 million right now. And we said we were going to do 100 million shots a day. One of the things that you and Melanie know is that we had to get vaccinators. It’s one thing to get vaccine delivered, another thing to get it out of that vial into a needle and into somebody’s arm. And so we worked very hard. We’ve probably gotten another close to 4,000 people who give vaccinations from National Guard, to the Defense Department, to others, and to units within…

Joe Biden: (43:07)
… department to others and to units within commercial operations that can have people do the vaccination. I signed an executive order allowing former, retired doctors and nurses to be able to come back and give vaccinations.

Joe Biden: (43:07)
And so, we’re going to beat this thing because of folks like you. And the extent you can continue to have your constituencies… And they’re all different. Is to make sure that they understand that social distancing matters, washing your hands matters, and the whole idea… And I don’t have to tell you that, Al. You know, you had two kids effected, right?

Al: (43:07)
Yes, sir. They’re doing pretty good. We’re blessed.

Joe Biden: (45:00)
Well, thank God. But one of the things that… You know, again, I’m going to go back to the whole question of equity. What we’re trying to do, my team and I, is get people who in fact have been most hurt by this pandemic to places where they are comfortable. Where they have comfort in going, they don’t feel like they are… They’re not intimated by the circumstance.

Joe Biden: (45:00)
They’re used to going to their grocery store, they’re used to going to their drug store or pharmacy. They’re used to doing those things. But we also are trying to get out mobile units into communities. Not only inter-city but rural communities that don’t have as much access.

Joe Biden: (51:22)
They tell me the statistic is that the vast majority of the American people live within five miles of a pharmacy. Well, the point is that, that may be the case but if you’re an older person living by yourself, you don’t have a vehicle and there’s no public transportation it’s awful hard to get to that pharmacy. So we’re working out ways now to provide mobile transportation, literally vans going into communities and people getting shots that are being administered by people who people tend to trust.

Joe Biden: (51:58)
I can’t tell you how much difference you’re making. We’ve met with people all over the country via this means. And I think there’s a growing awareness that injection bleach into your system doesn’t do it for you.

Joe Biden: (51:58)
I’m being serious, I mean, think about all the ridiculous things and there is online still, there are those who are the vaccine-

Moderator: (51:58)
Deniers.

Joe Biden: (51:58)
Deniers. And telling all these stories that aren’t true. So, I really appreciate you and you’re colleague across the country who are continuing to push and say, “No, if you can get a vaccine, get. If you can get it, get it as quickly as you can. Socially distance.”

Joe Biden: (52:11)
We’re now doing a study, the COVID team they’re studying whether or not once you’ve had the vaccine and you’ve had it for the better part of several weeks, the last shot, what can you do and not do in terms of being sure that you are safe. Do you still wear a mask? Do you still socially distance, etc.? We’re an administration that thinks science matters. Science matters. And it has to be available to the poorest among us and those who are most hurt by this COVID crisis, across the board. And that’s what we’re doing.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
Do you have any questions for me? Seriously, ask me anything you’d like. I can tell Carmen has a good question, I don’t know, she’s not sure, “Should I really ask him that?” You can ask me anything you want, I’m just Joe, okay? So, fire away. Do you have a question?

Carmen: (52:11)
When are you coming to see us in Columbus?

Joe Biden: (52:11)
I’m going to be back in Columbus… I was in Columbus actually now it’s about literally 35 days or so ago. I came through on a whistle stop a train when I was trying to get the nomination, when I was trying to win the election.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
But I like Columbus. I’m a Democrat, but I think your Governor’s doing a pretty decent job at trying to get things going. I don’t think there’s anything political about this. Some folks are just stepping up, and he’s stepped up in my impression.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
We disagree on things, we used to serve together, I like him. But it’s not a… I just think this is about the science. But when I come back, and now if you see me you’d better not say, “Joe who?” Okay? “Who is that? Joe Who? What was that guys name?”

Carmen: (52:11)
[inaudible 00:50:04]

Joe Biden: (52:11)
I’ll tell you what, I hope I can get to the point where that’s happened. Now, the one thing I get most asked is when it’s going to go back to normal. The honest to God truth is, I can’t tell you that. But most experts tell you that things are going to continue to change and change somewhat rapidly.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
I think you’re going to see that next fall is going to be different than last fall. I think you’re going to see that we’re going to be going into the Christmas season better than we were. Whether it’s back to complete normal? I don’t know.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
But, we’re going to beat this. I promise you, we are going to, together, beat this. But the idea that over 500, I think it’s… I have a card. I carry a card with me everyday with the total number of folks who have been affected by the…

Joe Biden: (52:11)
As of yesterday there are 500,071 people who have died from this. That’s more people that died in World War I, World War II and Vietnam combined. In a year. In a year. But look, when American people set their minds to something there’s nothing, nothing we’ve been unable to do if we do it together.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
So, with your help and there’s so darn many… Look at all the stuff that’s, I don’t know, bad or disappointing out there. But there’s so darn many good, decent, honorable people in this country and they want to get it done right. So.

Joe Biden: (52:11)
In the meantime, make me one promise. You all take care of yourselves. We need you, for real. We need you, for real. Okay?

Joe Biden: (52:23)
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you all. Thank you for your time and sharing your thoughts. It’s wonderful to be with you. Thank you, Mr. President.

Joe Biden: (52:23)
And you have the number. You can call us anytime. I really mean it. Not a joke.

Moderator: (52:23)
They know how to find me now, so.

Speaker 1: (52:23)
We have her email, I think.

Joe Biden: (52:37)
Believe me, she knows how to find me. “Joe, where are you? Come here.”

Susan Rice: (52:37)
Mr. President. Not Joe.

Joe Biden: (52:37)
Well, we used to be Joe.

Moderator: (52:37)
Okay.

Joe Biden: (52:37)
Joe is still good. All right.

Moderator: (52:37)
All right.

Joe Biden: (52:37)
Thank you.

Moderator: (52:38)
Thanks everybody. Take Care. Stay well. [crosstalk 00:52:38]

Joe Biden: (52:38)
Appreciate it.

Speaker 2: (52:38)
That’s it?

Speaker 3: (52:39)
That’s it. [crosstalk 00:52:39]

Speaker 4: (52:39)
Mr. President? Do you still have faith in Neera Tanden? That she can be confirmed?

Joe Biden: (52:44)
We’re going to push. I still think there’s a shot. A good shot.

Joe Biden & Susan Rice Moderate Roundtable with Black Essential Workers Transcript February 23

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