GOP senator compares people dying from coronavirus to lost business

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was asked by conservative radio host Todd Starnes if she believed the coronavirus situation was as dire as media reports have indicated.

From the March 27 edition of the “Todd Starnes Show”:

MARSHA BLACKBURN: Well, this is a serious public health issue and we want to take it seriously and we want individuals to receive treatment, we want them to absolutely call their doctor if they have constriction in their chest, if they have shortness of breath, if they have a cough and feel like they’ve got that bronchitis sort of feeling. Absolutely they should call their doctor. If they are sick, they should absolutely stay home.

 

And here’s a great example for you, Todd: I had a call from a guy in west Tennessee yesterday, and he owns some businesses there — as you know, west Tennessee is farm country — and he said, “Look, we need to have planters going on, we need to be working, we need people showing up,” and it’s important, he said, “Our people don’t work in close proximity and when they come in to the barn they can just stay separate and apart from individuals.”

 

But for them, they don’t want to miss this entire planting season. They’re excited about the trade agreements, they’re excited about new opportunities for new markets, and they want this to be a good one. And I have to tell you, I get that.

 

And that situation is very different from what you see in New York, and of course we are sad for everyone and really have great empathy for individuals who are adversely impacted through loss of life, through sickness.

 

We also grieve for those that have lost their American dream, their business, something they’ve dreamed of doing all of their lives, and I’ve talked to some of those individuals too.

 

So, I think the president and the vice president are being smart about this, they’re approaching it by saying, we’re — the different parts of the country will go back to work at different times, we have to flatten this curve, we have to make certain that all efforts are going into antivirals and to vaccines.

 

This has been a great lesson for all of us in how we sometimes let government get in the way and things do not reach a successful conclusion when they’re trying to work with the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Disease Control or the National Institutes of Health.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.