By Staff, Agencies

The United States’ Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he would follow public health advisers’ advice if they called for a national shutdown should he take office and the coronavirus had not abated.

"I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives. We cannot get the country moving until we control the virus," Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday night on ABC News.

Asked specifically whether he’d push to shutter economic activity if scientists said it was necessary, Biden replied: "I would shut it down."

Biden’s remarks came as part of his first joint interview with vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The pair accepted their party’s nominations during a virtual convention last week. Monday, Republicans begin their convention to nominate Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for a second term.

Biden and Harris, once primary rivals who sparred on the debate stage, sought during their sit-down with ABC to project a united front on policy issues from race to health care.

Harris, the first Black woman to join a major-party presidential ticket, vouched for Biden, a 77-year-old white man, when asked whether she's privately addressed some of his missteps when discussing race. He declared in May that any Black American having trouble deciding who to support "ain’t Black," a comment he walked back the same day and said again Sunday he regretted.

Harris described Biden as possessing "a deep sense of awareness and knowledge about racial disparities, inequities and systematic racism." She added that Biden "actually knows how to say the words ‘Black Lives Matter,’" contrary to Trump, who "will never speak those words."