CNBC editor Rick Santelli apologized after suggesting every person in the United States should be infected with coronavirus in order to stabilize the economy.
Santelli floated the theory during Thursday’s broadcast of The Exchange while speaking about the effect the outbreak has on the global economy and apologized a day later.
In addressing those remarks, he called them, “The dumbest, most ignorant, stupid thing anybody could have ever said.” He also said during his childhood, family members would expose children to other children who had gotten sick in order to expedite the process.
“It was just a stupid thing to say,” Santelli added. “It’s not appropriate in this instance, and we are resilient, both in the United States and in the globe. And that resilience will get us through. The idea of something so absurd — I just apologize, and I apologize to everybody on the segment and all my peers at CNBC.”
Santelli’s initial remarks spread on social media Thursday and led to people calling on the network to fire or discipline him.
“Think about how the world would be if you tried to quarantine everybody because of the generic-type flu. Now, I’m not saying this is the generic-type flu, but maybe we’d just be better off if we gave it [the coronavirus] to everybody and then in a month, it would be over, because the mortality rate of this probably isn’t going to be any different if we did it that way than the long-term picture. But the difference is we’re wreaking havoc on global and domestic economies,” he said.
The number of coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 100,600 on Friday. So far, 3,408 people have died due to the coronavirus. In the U.S. alone, 233 cases have been confirmed, and 14 people have died.
