Fox News host: “We've shut down an entire country for 0.3% of those who get it lose their lives”
Brian Kilmeade uses questionable death rate figure to claim "countless numbers of businesses are going to lose their livelihoods”
Published
Citation
From the May 26, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): You have to understand the frustration people feel, in small businesses, where one of out of every four is not going to come back, where 50% of the economy employs small businesspeople. And here in New York, we're just waiting, and Phase 1 is really not much of a difference from zero. Marc Siegel — Dr. Marc Siegel, on with Steve at 6:15 this morning said, yeah. here's what I think about projections. He also has a Wall Street Journal editorial today.
[BEGIN CLIP]
DR. MARC SIEGEL (FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR): The governor says he's now beginning to figure out that mathematical projections don't work. Let me tell you why they don't work.
...
It's because they are based on guesses. They're not based on real numbers
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Does this mean it's not a virus we should take seriously? Of course not. But it means governors, let alone doctors, should not be making mathematical projections or making decisions based on guesswork.
[END CLIP]
KILMEADE: Yeah, I think the governor is like, well, we won't get projections. We're all frustrated by what the scientists told us, we're all frustrated by the graph that didn't pan out. When we definitely noticed the seriousness when almost 100,000 Americans die. But what I took from the Dr. Siegel math was, 0.3% — not even 3%, 0.3%. We've shut down an entire country, for 0.3% of those who get it lose their lives. And now countless numbers of businesses are going to lose their livelihoods, and countless numbers of ancillary physical and mental diseases will come out of the 10-week shelter at home policy. And the release of just Phase 1 is very little difference from zero, Ainsley.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Yeah, I mean, we just need to all follow the rules, do it safely, and remember those that have passed away. I mean, every death, obviously, one death is important. And we're all just trying to figure this out together. We want to all get back to work, but we want to do it safely. We want these businesses to open again because people are hurting.