Sanders warns of coronavirus 'meltdown' on par with World War II

[Uncle Joe]

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday offered a dark assessment of the coronavirus outbreak, warning that the nation is facing an unprecedented emergency on par with a world war.

“The crisis we face from the coronavirus is on a scale of a major war, and we must act accordingly,” he said. “The number of casualties may actually be even higher than what the armed forces experienced in World War II. In other words, we have a major, major crisis and we must act accordingly.”

In a speech from Burlington, Vt., the Democratic presidential candidate called for drastic action to combat the spread of the disease — from guaranteeing unemployment insurance and building emergency homeless shelters to enlisting medical residents and retired doctors to aid with the response effort.

(snip)

“During a crisis, we must make sure that we care for the communities most vulnerable to the health and economic pain that is coming,” Sanders said. “The coronavirus is already causing a global economic meltdown, which is impacting people throughout the world and in our own country — and it is especially dangerous for low-income and working-class families.”

(snip)

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/12/bernie-sadners-coronavirus-127514

[empedocles]

1. At some point, rw media will exploit this to no end before November

[comradebillyboy]

29. He won't be the nominee so the Trumpers can

attack him all they want. Nobody will mistake Biden for Sanders.

[empedocles]

31. A lot of pol'tics is about who doesn't like who. Works to Dem advantage with

so many disliking trump.

However, definitely seems to cut the other way. BS, like AOC, has a narrowing, negative effect on Biden's broader appeal - which is why fox, et al, love to feature BS and AOC so much.

[dewsgirl]

2. He is right.

[Thekaspervote]

9. No he isn't right!! See post #5

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Hey Bernie

There are dictators trying to sink democracy, did you notice? One of them's in power here. The crisis goes way beyond the number of potential casualties.

[captain queeg]

4. He's really not exaggerating. WWII killed about 50 million I think

Could easily surpass that before it’s over.

[Thekaspervote]

6. See post #5

[Mr.Bill]

7. Ask the next person under 30 (or over 30 for that matter)

how many people died in WWII. Most people don't have a clue.

[Uncle Joe]

8. I believe Bernie was referring to U.S. military casualties in his speech,

that would put the death toll figure at approximately 407,000-417,000 here in the U.S.

[captain queeg]

28. There is so much we don't know, and I don't know the context of his statement

But 50 million world wide or 400,000 in the US is most certainly not out of the question. Especially the US number is unlikely. Biological science isn’t exact in my opinion, so many uncontrolled variables. But they come up with an estimate for things like transmission rate and death rate. If those numbers hold up, the math involved is not Inexact.

[Thekaspervote]

5. Oh FFS!! More doom from bernie! Can we leave it to the experts PLEASE!!!

He needs to rethink that and stop spreading false information..

This is a pandemic ..death toll is in the thousands

WWII had 50-70 million casualties

[Turin_C3PO]

11. Actually,

every expert I’ve read says this pandemic has the potential to leave 500,000 to one million dead in this country. Yes, that’s a worst case scenario, but we’re in uncharted waters here, folks. Especially with an idiot like Trump at the helm.

[Demsrule86]

14. Sanders speech was not productive-pointless.

[Turin_C3PO]

15. I didn't hear his speech.

Biden’s was great. Trump’s was terrible, as could be expected.

[Demsrule86]

17. Sanders turned his speech into a campaign speech...not much different than his usual stuff...

and somehow he thought WWII was an apt comparison? Honestly, he seemed kind of desperate...almost felt sorry for him...almost.

[Mr.Bill]

23. My summary of his speech:

None of this would be happening if we had universal health care in the US.

[Sloumeau]

24. The Spanish flu killed an estimate 50 million people.

[link:https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html|]

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.
...
Researchers believe the 1918 flu spared older people because they had some immunity to it. They theorize that decades earlier there had been a version of that virus, one that was not as lethal and spread like an ordinary flu. The older people living in 1918 would have been exposed to that less lethal flu and developed antibodies. As for children, most viral illnesses — measles, chickenpox — are more deadly in young adults, which may explain why the youngest were spared in the 1918 epidemic.

Regardless of the reason, it was a disaster for life expectancy, which plummeted. In 1917, life expectancy in the United States was 51 years. It was the same in 1919. But in 1918, it was just 39 years.

The Spanish flu killed people in their 20-40's much more often than older Americans because it was similar to an earlier flu that many people were exposed to. Coronavirus is new, so older Americans have no special immunity to it. We can keep keep the death rate lower than the Spanish flu with testing, the less testing, the worse the situation will be because fewer tests mean that the disease will tend to spread faster. The death rate with Spanish flu was similar to coronavirus--2.5% for Spanish flu and somewhere between 2-6% for coronavirus, where the best guess right now based on Wuhan data is 3.4%.

Again, testing is key. The less testing, the worse things get.

Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan said today to Ari Melber on his MSNBC TV show "The Beat" that in Seattle area alone, Experts estimate that if they do not take sufficient action now, the estimated 1100 cases that they have right now will by April 7th become 25,000 cases and result in 400 deaths in the Seattle area alone. If we fail to do enough, the death rate will be huge.

[frazzled]

10. That's not helpful

First, inducing panic is completely counterproductive. Second, there is no parallel. Spanish Influenza, maybe. World War II? Completely absurd. We are not talking bombs and sieges and fascism and concentration camps and countries invading and taking over other countries. Jesus.

This is why he should not be president.

[George II]

12. A bit extreme.

[Demsrule86]

13. Did he have any useful ideas? Didn't think so...just his usual inequality stuff...Biden on the

other hand sounded like a president.

[BeckyDem]

16. Excellent plan Bernie.

I would give a lot to see you as president, you have inspired so many across this country with your fairness.

[zackymilly]

19. If Sanders is so inspiring, why didn't the youth come out to vote? New video game come out? n/t

[Zeus69]

18. He needs to retire to Vermont.

No nuance.
Hammer over head.
Not a bridge builder.
My way or highway.
Over him. Big time.

[zackymilly]

20. He has 3 lawns to cut to keep him busy. n/t

[yaesu]

21. Frances president said its the most serious health emergency France has faced in 100 years. nt

[Uncle Joe]

22. I'm afraid we are in for some tough times my friend.

[yaesu]

25. I agree & it is slowly sinking in. nt

[denvine]

26. I get really alarmed with the Bernie hatred on DU.

He is obviously not the choice of most of you, he is not my choice but he is the choice of many Democrats for reasons you don't know or understand. No candidate is perfect and many less so but let the votes decide. Remember, the enemy is Trump and his Republicans. The attacks on Bernie could possibly disenfranchise some of his supporters and we need every last vote. Democrats have to stick together even if we have different ideas of who should be our nominee. We are the big tent party. Bernie can't breath without being criticized. Please stop the endless Bernie bashing. It is not helping our cause.

[TwilightZone]

27. His campaign staff pushes debunked, doctored videos about Biden's "dementia".

Compared to what is coming straight out of his own campaign, the criticism of him here seems pretty mild.

As for needing "every last vote", people who would believe that nonsense were never going to vote for Biden in the first place.

Is some of the criticism unwarranted? Sure. Same with every other candidate, especially Warren and Biden when they were front-runners earlier in the campaign, plus Pete and Amy when they withdrew and endorsed Biden, and Warren again when she had the nerve to confront Sanders about what she perceived was him lying about her on national TV, then when she wouldn't drop out, and then, conversely, after she did drop out and didn't jump right on the Bernie bandwagon. In all of those circumstances, Sanders supporters were at the front of the line attacking away.

Is it "endless Bernie bashing"? Nope, some of it is quite valid.

[redqueen]

30. You're right of course.

But the haters will not listen. And if Biden loses, they'll be blamed again, and dems may end up losing those voters for good. The ones we haven't already lost for good, that is.

[MrsCoffee]

32. For fucks sake, he reaps what he sows.

I am so sick of the leave Bernie alone crowd who never seem to get upset over Bernie’s continual misrepresentations and smears against Democrats and the Democratic Party.

Just because Bernie promises everything for free doesn’t mean he gets a free pass.