2020 watch: Wait — Who’s Unpresidential?

Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden “has attempted to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to gain political leverage from the moment the outbreak spread to the United States,” rails The American Spectator’s David Catron. Last Friday, The Washington Post awarded Biden “four ‘Pinocchios’ ” for “deceptively” editing President Trump’s words, and Catron notes that’s “by no means an isolated offense.” Biden’s attempt “to blame Trump will backfire,” because it “simply isn’t presidential” — while “all Trump has to do in order to appear statesmanlike is show up and do his job.” Biden best beware: Voters will see his decision to “criticize the man tasked with solving the problem,” while the ex-veep himself stands “on the outside with no responsibility,” as nothing more than “cheap partisanship.”

Conservative: Medicare for All = Rx for Disaster

Medicare for All — even Joe Biden’s “mild” version — “would spell disaster amid a cataclysmic pandemic where countless Americans suddenly require intensive care,” warns Ross Marchand in The Washington Examiner, because socialized systems always wind up stinting on basic infrastructure. America “has the most intensive-care-unit beds per person of any developed country,” 34.7 per 100,000 people. Italy has only 12.5, “and it has paid the price,” as its ICUs have been overwhelmed by the coronavirus outbreak. Britain, “whose National Health Service is held up as an exemplar of government-run care,” has just 6.6 beds per 100,000. “Americans need a better approach than hoping they don’t get sick and then ­being rationed out of hospital care when they do.” Surely “Italy’s experience shows that already struggling bureaucratized health-care systems” can’t handle “a large-scale catastrophe on top of the needs posed by a rapidly aging population.”

Health beat: A Coronavirus Paradox

If we succeed in containing the coronavirus outbreak, Tom Bossert ­argues at ABC News, it “will look like we overreacted.” That’s the “paradox of apparent overreaction,” and it’s why President Trump this week “yelled fire while we still have time”: If we “overreact,” the virus’ effects might seem like “a bad year of seasonal flu” — but if not, “this virus could kill 200,000 people.” That’s why we mustn’t view “fewer cases” as “permission to let down our guard.” Instead, we have to prepare for the “long game.” And if we acknowledge the paradox as we “take care of each other,” we could make this “terrible moment” our “finest hour.”

Libertarian: Americans Are Stepping Up

Companies and private citizens are rushing to soften the financial blow to workers and to protect their health, reports Veronique de Rugy at Reason. Walmart, Target and other firms are offering two weeks’ paid sick leave. Uber, whose drivers are self-employed, is providing those with COVID-19 or quarantined up to 14 days of aid. The Metropolitan Opera is streaming performances for free. Hoop star Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans is covering salaries of workers at the Smoothie King Center while the NBA season is suspended. Local restaurants are offering free lunches to kids in need. From private companies to private citizens, “examples abound of the generosity and sense of community of the American people.” For inspiration during this period of social distancing, suggests de Rugy, just check out Facebook. “America, you’ve got this!”

Foreign desk: The Other Chinese Virus

While the media have decided to “elevate the petty over the substantive” and scold Trump for “calling the virus from China the ‘China virus,’  ” few people are discussing “the culpability of the Chinese government in the disaster that is playing out around the world,” sigh the editors of National Review. Beijing made “the problem dramatically worse by trying to cover it up.” It ­“silenced” doctors and anti-corruption activists. This “cowardice and dishonesty in the early days of the outbreak” gave the virus a “head start.” So don’t blame China for being the place where the virus first appeared — but do “blame Beijing for the other Chinese virus: the repression it practices at home and seeks to export.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board