Texas' lieutenant governor suggests grandparents are willing to die for US economy
Adrianna Rodriguez USA TODAY 3/24/2020
The lieutenant governor of Texas argued in an interview 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 coronavirus crisis.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, 69, made the comments on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after President Donald Trump said he wanted to reopen the country for business in weeks, not months.
Patrick also said 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.
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“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. “And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”
"Open for business":How several states hunkered down the same day Trump promoted going back to normal
"And that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that," he continued. "I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me... that what we care about and what we love more than anything are those children."
Patrick claimed after speaking to over a hundred people over the phone that there's a consensus that they don't want to "lose our whole country" over the current public health crisis and face an economic collapse.
Health experts have made clear the coronavirus poses a particular danger for older patients – 60 years old and older – who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19.
They say unless Americans continue to dramatically limit social interaction — staying home from work and isolating themselves — the number of infections will overwhelm the health care system, as it has in parts of Italy, leading to many more deaths.
Dr. 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.
Contributing: Associated Press. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.
March 23, 2020 By Matthew Chapman
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick thinks grandparents should be willing to sacrifice their lives to save the economy
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) seems to think that if given the choice, Americans 70 and over would be willing to risk getting coronavirus and possibly dying if it means stores re-open and the economy rebounds.
On Fox News Monday night, Patrick lamented not being asked how he would balance protecting some of the people most at-risk for contracting coronavirus — adults 65 and over — while keeping businesses up and running. "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?" he said. "If that's the exchange, I'm all in."
The 69-year-old kept going, saying that "those of us who are 70 plus, we'll take care of ourselves, but don't sacrifice the country." This declaration "doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that," Patrick said, "I just think there's lots of grandparents out there like me ... what we all care about and what we love more than anything are those children and I want to live smart and see through this, but I don't want the whole country to be sacrificed, and that's what I see."
Host Tucker Carlson asked Patrick for clarification, wanting to make sure he really was 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." Patrick paused, possibly realizing that he just volunteered as tribute in The Hunger Games: Coronavirus Edition, then responded, "Yeah."
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
On Monday, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested on Fox News that older Americans should be willing to risk getting coronavirus and dying so that younger Americans are able to keep working and maintain the economy.
Patrick’s comments were met with horror and disbelief on social media.
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, 69, suggested on Fox News that grandparents should be willing to risk their lives to end COVID-19 coronavirus closures.
Patrick, a Baby Boomer grandfather himself, made his comments while being interviewed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) was just on Fox saying he agrees with Trump. He cast it as an opportunity for seniors to sacrifice in order to keep the country intact for their grandchildren. “Let's get back to living… And those of us that are 70+, we'll take care of ourselves.”
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) March 24, 2020
Interestingly, in China people have expressed similar pride in the self-sacrifice they’ve undertaken during the coronavirus pandemic — but that sacrifice was to self-quarantine for weeks, not to return to business as usual.
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) March 24, 2020
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
Is… Dan Patrick really just telling old people "if you die, you die"? https://t.co/oyTMszt1zc
— Tray מיכה (@TrayBridgewater) March 24, 2020
Texas lieutenant governor @DanPatrick embraces the latest Trump stupidity on the coronavirus, saying aloud that the elderly would "take a chance on their survival in exchange" for securing the economy for their grandchildren. (But not the climate, right?) pic.twitter.com/CPKm0mMoVC
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) March 24, 2020
To think Texans survived Jade Helm and transgender bathrooms only to be sacrificed by Dan Patrick himself. What a twist. https://t.co/D8YVqE6wf0
— Evan (@evan7257) March 24, 2020
Wow, Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick went on TV and said he's 70 but willing to die for the economy. This is lit af. This the tea. This is the new angle on all this. You love to see it. Die for the stocks!
— Oliver Bateman Does the Work (@MoustacheClubUS) March 24, 2020
OH MY GOD! I’m 9th generation or more, Texan and I’m not sacrificing my mother for your profits, fuck you! @DanPatrick @GovAbbott #TXLege @RepDennisBonnen @HoustonChron @dallasnews @statesman https://t.co/QDl6tkn018
— HRCSuperVol1 (@hrcsupervol01) March 24, 2020
Ok Grandparents of Texas! Our Lt
Gov says you need to take one for the team.
— xxxJDxxx (@xxxJDxxx3) March 24, 2020
so yea, sorry texas grandparents but the invisible hand demands a sacrifice
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) March 24, 2020
No words. No, wait, here's some words: put Dan Patrick in a giant slingshot, aim towards the sun and fire away. https://t.co/APSZtPX3X6
— Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) March 24, 2020
Grandchildren should not value the economy more than their grandparents. Or random strangers. Maybe more than Dan Patrick. https://t.co/3MCgakYlUW
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) March 24, 2020
This is lunacy. If Dan Patrick wants to refuse medical care for himself, that’s his right.
Basically calling on other senior adults to die to “keep the country intact” is reprehensible. That generation fought to keep the country intact years ago. https://t.co/ayq2kBwH0V
— (@martyduren) March 24, 2020
This is total horseshit. I'm not going to tolerate idiots potentially getting my parents and grandparents killed and then PRETEND like that's what my family wouldn't wanted just to "save my generation".
Fuck. right. off.
You're not noble, Dan Patrick. You're just a moron. https://t.co/A2vrE0hfAM
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) March 24, 2020
.@DanPatrick Do I have to choose which one of my grandparents to sacrifice, or do they do that for me? Is there a test they take? Maybe a panel of people who assess which ones can survive the longest?
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) March 24, 2020
If @DanPatrick is ready to die for his country the least he could do is resign his position as Texas Lt. Gov. NOW so that he can be replaced by someone who values life.
— Kevin M. Levin (@KevinLevin) March 24, 2020
This kind of numbnuttery will kill people in Texas. Young as well as old. We need a state-wide shelter in place order to stop the spread of coronavirus and save hundreds of thousands of lives. https://t.co/C8r9Q7t2vs
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 24, 2020
Older people would rather die than let Covid-19 harm US economy – Texas official
Lois Beckett in San Francisco, The Guardian•March 23, 2020
Photograph: Jay Janner/AP
As Donald Trump pushed to re-open the US economy in weeks, rather than months, the lieutenant governor of Texas went on Fox News to argue that he would rather die than see public health measures damage the US economy, and that he believed “lots of grandparents” across the country would agree with him.
“My message: let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves,” Lt Gov Dan Patrick, a 69-year-old Republican, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday night.
“Don’t sacrifice the country,” Patrick said. “Don’t do that.”
Patrick said he feared that public health restrictions to prevent coronavirus could end American life as he knows it, and that he is willing to risk death to protect the economy for his grandchildren.
“You know, Tucker, 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. “And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”
“That doesn’t make me noble or brave or anything like that,” he added. “I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me.”
At the White House’s coronavirus briefing Monday night, the administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr Deborah Birx, said that emerging data from Europe suggested that 99% of the coronavirus deaths were people over age 50, and that many had pre-existing conditions. That “doesn’t change the need to protect the elderly”, Birx said.
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
Trump, who has raised concerns about the damage that coronavirus prevention measures are doing to the US economy, said he was eager to return for the country to return to normal as soon as possible, and suggested that an economic crisis might result in more deaths, through suicide, than a global pandemic.
He did not answer questions from journalists about whether he would abide by the advice of public health experts if they told him next week that the government needed to keep restrictive measures in place over the longer term to prevent the spread of the virus.
Patrick, a Texas Republican, praised the president’s focus on the economy on Monday and said that it had “lifted” his heart.
“I don’t want the whole country to be sacrificed,” Patrick said. “I’ve talked to hundreds of people … and everyone says pretty much the same thing: We can’t lose our whole country. We’re having an economic collapse.”
“We’re going to be in a total collapse, recession, depression, collapse in our society if this goes on for another several months,” Patrick said. “As the president said, the mortality rate is so low. Do we have to shut down the entire country for this? I think we can get back to work.”
Patrick said that, as someone who turns 70 next week, he was in the high-risk group, but that he was willing to give up his life for his six grandchildren.
“Look, I’m going to do everything I can do to live,” Patrick said. “But if you said, are you willing to take a chance … If I get sick, I’ll got and try to get better, but if I don’t, I don’t.”
HAVING A FLASHBACK WILD IN THE STREETS 1968
In this first ever "Rock the Vote," Christopher Jones sings about lowering the voting age to 14. His master plan? Becoming president then herding everyone over 21 into concentration camps to be fed LSD for the rest of their lives. Good idea. Yeah, that's Richard Pryor on drums.
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