Sunday, Peter Navarro, director of Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, said more Americans will die because of “quarantine and lockdown” than from C-19 coronavirus.
In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Mr. Navarro, who also serves as policy coordinator for the National Defense Production Act, blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for dropping the ball in its initial testing effort.
“Early on in this crisis, the CDC which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing,” he charged. “Because not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy, they had a bad test. And that did set us back.”
He said President Trump rightly realized the risks and benefits of lockdown, and worried it would be worse than the C-19 coronavirus.
“We know statistically based on our experience with the China trade shock in the 2000s that unemployment creates more suicides, depression and drug abuse,” he said.
“But we also know this in this crisis, as we have basically locked down our hospitals for everything but COVID, 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. And that’s going to kill people as well. So if you contrast like this complete lockdown where some of the people in the medical community want to just run and hide until the virus is extinguished, that’s going to not only take a huge toll on the American economy, it is going to kill many more people than virus… ever would.”
He also defended The Trump Administration’s use of the DPA against Democrats’ criticism, saying it’s been used “quite effectively.”
“They are dead wrong,” he said, pointing to its use to get General Motors (NYSE:GM) working with a small company called Ventec to make ventilators.
“These Senators are looking in the rearview mirror,” he added, asserting, “these Democratic Senators ought to get out more often and see what The Trump Administration is doing.”
Have a healthy day, Keep the Faith!
