Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” where he cited the current spread of the coronavirus as a perfect example of why America needs a single-payer health care system.
“We should talk about coronavirus if you don’t mind, I watch the news, I read the news, and I just don’t know who to really trust,” Jimmy Fallon said to Bernie Sanders.
The socialist senator from Vermont then used the moment to paint President Trump as being “anti-science,” while criticizing his decision to appoint Vice President Mike Pence as head of the task force.
“That is the problem we have today, we have a president who is anti-science, doesn’t believe in the reality of climate change, who has appointed Mike Pence, who is also not known to be much of a scientist, to lead the task force,” said Sanders. “Clearly, at this moment, you need somebody who you can trust who is going to bring together the best scientists, doctors, researchers, work with the entire world, to do everything that we can to halt this terrible pandemic.”
“And I think there are clearly some things we need to do right away,” he continued. “The idea that we have so many people in this country, the only country on earth, major country, that doesn’t guarantee healthcare to all people, we have to make sure that everybody, right now, feels free when you’re sick to go to a doctor, regardless of your income.”
Sanders then segued into a major pitch for single-payer, government-run healthcare.
“And you know what? The government will pay that bill,” he said. “Number two, we are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee paid medical leave. If you can believe it, there are people who are sick today, who may actually believe they have symptoms of the coronavirus, who are going to work because they have no income. … We have got to do what every other country on Earth does and guarantee paid family and medical leave, and do it right now on an emergency basis.”
As noted by Christopher Jacobs at The Federalist, a single-payer healthcare system would not exactly be a panacea, considering that Bernie was essentially echoing recent claims made by Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn regarding the coronavirus outbreak:
Yesterday, our part-time prime minister finally published the steps that his government will take to tackle the outbreak of the disease. The strategy broadly has our support, but a decade of Tory austerity means that our national health service is already struggling to cope. Bed-occupancy levels are at 94% and hundreds of our most vulnerable people are being treated on trolleys in corridors. What additional funding will our overstretched and underfunded NHS be given to deal with this crisis?
On Wednesday night, President Trump spoke from the Oval Office where he announced “several strong but necessary actions” to combat the coronavirus, which has now begun to hurt the American economy. One of his top actions included ensuring that “working Americans impacted by the virus can stay home without fear of financial hardship.”