On the eve of Michigan's primary election, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders halted his campaign to host a public health roundtable at the Westin Hotel at Detroit Metro Airport, focusing primarily on the global coronavirus outbreak, which ballooned Monday afternoon to 605 cases and 22 deaths in the U.S. Calling President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 outbreak "vulgar" and "obscene," Sanders pitched his Medicare for All proposal, saying whether you're poor or rich shouldn't matter when it comes to treatment and access to an eventual vaccine. "When you have a global infectious crisis, which is endangering people all over the world, the people of the United States and, in fact, the people of the world look to the United States and want to know that we have an administration in this country whose decisions and comments are based on science, not based on tweets that have no scientific basis, not based on politics, not based on policies that protect the wealthy and the powerful," he said. He highlighted comments the president and people in his administration have made about the potentially high cost of a coronavirus vaccine when it comes to market. "Does anybody in their right mind believe that if you're rich, you should be able to afford a vaccine and save your life, and the poor have got to die?" Sanders asked. "Is that really where we're at in the United States of America?" Trump has previously said a vaccine could become available in months, though experts at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said a vaccine is at least a year away. Trump met with the leaders of pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines last week and has criticized Democrats and the media for inflaming fears about the virus. "We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus. We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!" he tweeted Sunday. The president signed an $8.3 billion congressional coronavirus funding bill last week and has put in place escalating travel restrictions and quarantines to try to prevent the virus from coming into the United States and spreading here. However, Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, has said those measures only bought the nation more time to prepare for an outbreak. There is now community spread, and the nation's health response has moved to mitigation. Among the steps in that community mitigation is to advise the public to take steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus by doing such things as disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, avoiding sick people, coughing into your arm or a tissue and washing your hands. But that, Sanders said, has been impossible for people in Detroit who've faced water shut-offs because they can't afford to pay their water bills. "It's a bit hard to wash your hands and keep clean if you don't have running water because you're too poor to pay an outrageously high water bill," Sanders said, praising city and state leaders for announcing earlier in the day they would restore service for a $25 fee for Detroiters whose household income is 150% of the federal poverty level. Those customers can keep service on for $25 a month until the coronavirus outbreak has passed. "Can you believe that in the year 2020 in the richest country in the world, in a major American city, people have no water because they can not afford to pay their water bills?" Sanders asked. He turned to the doctors and the nurse who flanked him to talk about the science of the COVID-19 outbreak, and what they're dealing with on the job. Dr. Victoria Dooley, a family medicine physician with a practice in Novi, said there's a huge issue right now with lack of tests and restrictions that are too stringent about who should be tested for COVID-19. "We need to be able to test more people," she said to get a true picture about how widespread the disease is in this country. To date, 63 people in Michigan have been tested for COVID-19. Of them, 39 people have gotten negative results. For the remaining 24 people, test results are pending, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services . It reported that patients who are being tested in the state now are chosen with the recommendation of a doctor and in conjunction with state and local health departments, prioritizing people who: Dooley also said doctors and medical staff are at risk because there are not enough masks, eye wear and other protective equipment to keep health care workers safe when they treat COVID-19 patients. "We need masks," she said, imploring the public to stop buying them. Deborah Burger, a registered nurse and co-president of National Nurses United and president of California Nurses Association, agreed. She said some nurses in areas where there are COVID-19 cases are working long hours without necessary protective gear, which, she said, "are being kept under lock and key by managers," without paid sick leave and without necessary training to handle a COVID-19 outbreak. "We know if we have the proper equipment we can take care of these patients safely," she said. When asked whether he would curtail speaking at rallies and other public events while campaigning to avoid contracting coronavirus, Sanders said no decision is made without first consulting with local health officials about the risk in that community. "I think that every organization in America is taking a hard look at what their own virus will mean to their operations. And, yes, that is true of our campaign as well," he said. At 78 years old, and having recently had a heart attack, Sanders is in a high-risk group for complications from the virus, which tends to be more serious and deadly in older people and people who have underlying health conditions. His opponent in the primary election, former Vice President Joe Biden, is 77. President Trump is 73. Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus. Nancy Kaffer and USA Today contributed to this report.