The lieutenant governor of Texas thinks “lots of grandparents” may be willing to die of the coronavirus to stop a possible economic recession that could affect their grandchildren’s lives.
While appearing on Monday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at-risk patients, specifically older grandparents, are willing to risk dying of COVID-19 if it means businesses and employees could resume their normal economic routine. Fox News host Tucker Carlson opened the interview by reading a message he received from Patrick earlier.
“So I say, let’s give this a few more days or weeks, but after that, let’s go back to work and go back to living. Those who want to shelter in place can still do so. But we can’t live with this uncertainty,” Carlson read before asking Patrick to expound on his message.
“I’m not living in fear of COVID-19. What I’m living in fear of is what’s happening to this country,” Patrick prefaced his remarks. “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?’ And if that’s the exchange, I’m all-in. And that doesn’t make me noble or brave or anything like that.”
“I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me … that what we all care about, and what we love more than anything, are those children,” he continued, adding that he was encouraged by President Trump’s rhetoric at an earlier press conference about having the public working sooner than expected. “Those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves, but don’t sacrifice the country.”
Carlson then asked Patrick if he feared an economic recession more than dying of the virus, saying, “You’re basically saying that this disease could take your life, but that’s not the scariest thing to you. There’s something that would be worse than dying?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said. “You know, if I get sick, I’ll go and try to get better. But if I don’t, I don’t.”
He added that he’s ready to prioritize the “legacy of the country” over his life but trusts Trump’s judgment on when life in the United States should return to normal.
COVID-19 cases have appeared on every continent except Antarctica. Nearly 372,500 people have tested positive for the coronavirus around the world, and at least 16,000 have died from it. In the U.S., more than 41,700 people have the coronavirus, leading to at least 573 deaths.
The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic nearly two weeks ago. More than 100,000 people worldwide have recovered from the illness.
