Biden heading to Delaware as CDC recommends avoiding travel

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading back to his home in Delaware on Friday to spend the weekend with his wife and family, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans forgo travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The White House officials said the trip by Biden, his first aboard Air Force One as president, is far less risky than the sort of commercial travel that Americans are being urged to avoid.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the key was “ensuring that people don't take steps to make others vulnerable.” She said Biden planned to watch the Super Bowl during his weekend at home but didn't offer further details about how he would spend his time in Delaware.

“Any president of the United States, Democrat or Republican, obviously takes Air Force One, a private plane, when they travel,” she added.

Biden, who has a home outside Wilmington, Delaware, has made getting the pandemic under control the central focus of the early weeks of his presidency. His team has repeatedly emphasized that the president will model safe behavior for the nation.

Any time the president travels, an entourage of support and security personnel and media travel with him.

The CDC's guidance notes that “travel increases your chance of spreading and getting COVID-19" and that the agency “recommends that you do not travel at this time."

Biden will avoid many of the risks of travel associated with commercial flights or traveling by bus or train. He also got his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine more than three weeks ago.

The CDC recommends that individuals who must travel first complete their vaccinations — if they're eligible to receive them — and then wait two weeks after the second dose before departing.

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