Trump on Pressure to Give up on Lockdowns and Reopen the Economy.

White House coronavirus task force are urging President Donald Trump to abandon its social distancing policies and reopen the economy. 

Primetime host Tucker Carlson argued on his Thursday night program that “one of the main lessons of this crisis is that the public health establishment failed us badly” by recommending stay-home orders and other social distancing policies that are hurting the economy. 

“What would’ve happened, for example, if we’d adopted a more conventional response to this epidemic?” Carlson said.

“What if we’d asked the elderly and immunocompromised and anyone else facing statistically higher rates of risk to stay inside, cloistered away? And then at the same time allow the rest of the population to use informed common sense and continue to work?” 

He continued, “What if we’d done that a month ago? Would the death rate today be much higher than it is now? Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know.

According to Carlson, a conversation should’ve been held before locking down the entire country and put 10 million people out of work.

However, the decision was outsourced to public health officials who suggested that the only way to slow the spread of the virus and prevent thousands, if not millions, of deaths is to keep people at home until modeling shows it’s safe to reopen businesses, schools, and public places. 

Fox News commentator Melissa Francis argued on Friday that the virus is “everywhere already” in New York and she’s “losing faith” in the stay-home orders states have implemented across the country as the economy implodes.

However, She suggested the economic fallout from the lockdown is scarier than the deadly virus itself. 

“It does seem like it’s spread all over New York, so at this point I don’t know about the efficacy of staying inside indefinitely,” Francis said.  

Fox News host Harris Faulkner, who Trump recently called “one of my favorite people,” pushed back gently on Francis and interrupted to ask a doctor on the panel to give her perspective.

The doctor, Janette Nesheiwat, argued “you can’t put a price tag on lives.” 

On “Fox and Friends,” one of the president’s favorite Fox programs, co-host Brian Kilmeade argued on Friday that the economic damage from the virus is avoidable. 

“This is a self-inflicted wound, it’s a slow-motion car wreck that we brought on ourselves,” Kilmeade said. “We should talk about how many people are working … I’d rather find out the 20% that are still on their jobs … we’re an anomaly now.” said Kilmeade.

However Some governors have so far refused to issue statewide stay home orders in their states. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is frustrated with the lack of a federal mandate and on Thursday said “I don’t understand why” the president hasn’t issued a nation-wide stay home order. 

Several Fox News hosts are making cases that the economic fallout from widespread lockdowns will be a greater price to pay than the additional lives that would be lost if the economy reopens.

Few hours ago, Trump tweeted, “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”

Since then, many of the president’s allies have argued that older Americans and others more vulnerable to the disease should sacrifice themselves for the good of the economy.

During his Thursday night program, Carlson defended Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who argued that “lots of grandparents” were willing to die of COVID-19 if it meant the economy could get back up and running more quickly.