For organizer Ady Barkan, COVID-19 is yet another reason to pass Medicare for All

IT’S A COOL, CLEAR WEDNESDAY NIGHT IN MID-March, and Ady Barkan is at home in Santa Barbara, Calif., hosting an emergency call with 3,200 supporters. As COVID-19 sweeps across the country, triggering emergency prohibitions and thousands of hospitalizations, people are looking to Barkan for leadership. But for a few long minutes, the line is quiet. The technology on Barkan’s computer that’s supposed to help him speak using his eye movements isn’t working. He tries once, then again, and after another minute of anxious silence, Barkan’s synthetic voice suddenly fills the air. “Out of this emergency, America will emerge a new nation,” he says. “But in what direction will we go?”

While the point of this call is to catalyze immediate