The Lt. Governor of Texas made a bold statement on Fox News Monday night that the United States should go back to work, saying grandparents like him don’t want to sacrifice the country’s economy during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
What We Know:
- Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, made the comments on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight after President Donald Trump stated he would like to reopen the country for business in a few weeks, not months.
- Patrick also stated the elderly population, who the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said are more at risk for COVID-19, can take care of themselves and suggested that grandparents wouldn’t want to sacrifice their grandchildren’s economic future.
Tx Lt Gov Dan Patrick says grandparents would be willing to die to save the economy for their grandchildren pic.twitter.com/wC3Ngvtsbj
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) March 24, 2020
- “No one reached out to me and said, ‘as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’” Patrick said.
- Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, warned in a series of tweets that curbing social distancing could cost millions of lives.
- Inglesby said the U.S has seen exponential growth and that health officials are just beginning to understand how pervasive it is. While the worst outbreaks are concentrated in certain parts of the country, such as New York, experts warn that the highly infectious disease is certain to spread.
Texas has more than 350 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths related to the virus. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has resisted a stay-at-home order for all of Texas but local officials in Dallas and San Antonio have enacted the order.
