White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus will “indirectly” kill more people than the virus itself.
Navarro said loosening restrictions on businesses is not a “question of lives vs. jobs. What President Trump realized early on was, if you lock people down, you may save lives directly from the China virus, but you indirectly are going to kill a lot more people” through suicide or substance abuse.
“Women haven’t been getting mammograms or cervical examinations for cancer. We haven’t been able to do other procedures for the heart or the kidneys,” Navarro said. “And that’s going to kill people as well.”
On Meet the Press, Peter Navarro suggests stay at home orders correlate with “more suicides” & hence “kill many more people” than the coronavirus. That’s unproven. pic.twitter.com/6z3nj6eU0y https://t.co/qdHm5Rfh5H
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 17, 2020
The United States has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the world by far. There are more than 89,000 deaths and almost 1.5 million confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. Worldwide, the virus has killed more than 315,000 people and has infected more than 4.7 million.
On Meet the Press, Peter Navarro suggests stay at home orders correlate with “more suicides” & hence “kill many more people” than the coronavirus. That’s unproven. pic.twitter.com/6z3nj6eU0y https://t.co/qdHm5Rfh5H
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 17, 2020
Meanwhile, Navarro heightened his attacks on blaming China for the deadly coronavirus pandemic, while suggesting Beijing sent airline passengers to spread the disease worldwide.
“The virus was spawned in Wuhan province, patient zero was in November,” Navarro said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Yes, I do blame the Chinese,” White House adviser Peter Navarro says on economic challenges in U.S. due to COVID-19, claiming that China “behind the shield of the World Health Organization — for two months— hid the virus from the world.” https://t.co/RZlw4jVstR pic.twitter.com/U5wkjBOMJB
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 17, 2020
“They could have kept it in Wuhan,” Navarro added. “Instead, it became a pandemic. That’s why I say the Chinese did that to Americans and they are responsible.”
