Trump says if Biden's elected, "he'll listen to the scientists"

The Biden campaign slammed President Trump after he said at a Nevada rally Sunday if his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden were elected there'd be more coronavirus pandemic lockdowns because "he'll listen to the scientists."

What he's saying: "If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression," Trump said.

The other side: Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in an emailed statement, "Donald Trump tanked the strong economy he inherited from the Obama-Biden Administration by continually discounting and attacking warnings from the scientific and medical experts working around the clock to save lives.

"Now new coronavirus cases are surging and layoffs are rising."

For the record: The U.S. has the highest number of cases and death toll from COVID-19 in the world. Infections jumped almost 17% over the past week as the number of new cases increased in 38 states and Washington, D.C.

The virus has killed more than 219,600 people and infected over 8.1 million in the U.S., per Johns Hopkins.

Airlines, oil companies, tire manufacturers, book publishers and insurers are among the industries where tens of thousands of layoffs have been announced.

Go deeper: The onset of winter will make the pandemic even worse.