Notably Quotable: “You’re only as healthy as the…”

“You’re only as healthy as the least insured person around you.”

— Jimmy Dore, Jessie Ventura Show

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“I am a doctor living and working in Italy (Lombardy, the most hard-hit region) and I can confirm everything this doctor said. This virus is not a joke, nor is “just a flu”. Other countries need to wake up and start taking serious precautions to contain the upcoming epidemy: unfortunately it’s not a matter of “if”, but a matter of “when”. Take care and stay safe and AVOID CROWDED PLACES AT ALL COSTS PLEASE. Don’t make the same mistakes Italy made at the beginning of this epidemy: this situation is very serious. Learn from us. I wish you all luck.”

— fagiolification, online comment, Coronavirus ‘worse than a bomb’ on Italy, says doctor coordinating response

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“The U.S. is one of a select few countries in the world without a national policy that ensures paid sick leave, leaving many low-wage restaurant workers with little choice but to go to work even when they’re sick. Many are also deterred from seeing the doctor due to being uninsured or having health insurance policies that leave them with expensive bills.”

— Beth Krietsch, Can Coronavirus Be Transmitted Through Food? Here’s What You Should Know

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“It’s critical to remember that people under quarantine are sacrificing for the public good. Sometimes when we think about quarantine, people take a criminalization tone, like ‘Oh what did you do wrong?’ I think we should think of quarantine like jury duty. Nobody wants to do it, but we do because it’s part of our social contract with our community.”

— Rebecca Katz, the director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security, What Would A Coronavirus Quarantine Mean And How Would It Be Enforced?

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“I felt like I knew everything I needed to know about Joe Biden when I heard him tell rich donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” if he was elected president, and when he said of people in my generation that he had “no empathy” for our concerns, like being overwhelmed by student debt and unable to afford kids. Why would we want a president who promises no change? There needs to be change. How can I become even slightly enthusiastic about someone who says he has no empathy for me? One of Joe Biden’s supposed best qualities, according to his boosters, is that he is overflowing with empathy. But he openly states that he doesn’t care about me or the others in my generation. Surely Democrats can do better than this.”

— Nathan J. Robinson, Democrats, You Really Do Not Want to Nominate Joe Biden

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“And here’s something to reflect on: The Democratic establishment won’t care. They don’t care. Please let that sink in, dear progressives: THEY DO NOT CARE. Put this on your record player: the Dem establishment will gladly enable a second fascistic and ecocidal Trump term before it will get behind a progressive Dem/Sanders nomination. They would rather to lose to the rightmost party, even an ever-more fascistic and apocalyptic GOP, than to the moderately social-democratic left wing of their own party.”

— Paul Street, They Rule: No Easter Bernie

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“Is Bernie too gentle on the Democratic Party? I think he’s a gentleman, and they are not. Bernie’s a statesman, and he’s up against sharks. He needs to call people out for who they are.”

— Roseann DeMoro, former president of National Nurses United, Sanders Refocusing Campaign After Disappointing Super Tuesday