Saturday on Fox News, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) argued for a coronavirus response policy that also focused on the economy as much as it focused individual’s health, seeking what he described to be a “balance.”
“There has to be a balance between what we do for someone’s physical health and what we do for their financial health,” he said. “We’ve been able to lower — to flatten the curve. The problem is is that we’ve really kind of put the weight on the physical health. And now, the financial health is suffering. We’ve got to figure out how to bring it back to balance. How do we, of course, always have this risk but at the same time give some people some relief from the financial pain they’re going through?”
Cassidy, also a physician, argued for science as a “guide,” which he said could mean the circulation of the economy.
“I think that we need to have science guide what we do,” Cassidy said. “If science tells us that some people are immune, then because they’ve been previously exposed, they have greater freedom. If science tells us that there are some people who are at extremely low risk of complications, thinking of children ages two through 20 — to eight. If I may call a 28-year-old a child, a young adult, then we know that they are extremely low risk of complications.”
“So maybe even if they are not immune, they could begin to circulate an economy — in the economy doing regular testing, very regular testing, to make sure that those who are at risk because they’re older, have diabetes, high blood pressure, know they’re at risk and we, in some way, continue to socially — excuse me, physically isolate them in a sense from disease,” he continued. “There has to be science that guides what we do, but science can give that guidance.”
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