On March 6, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that 66% of roughly 600 new COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York state were from people sheltering at home when they fell ill. Some in conservative media have drawn broad conclusions from this statistic, criticizing stay-at-home order and suggesting that they confine people to dangerous “petri dishes” instead of letting them go outside.

The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld said the statistic shows that “the disease came and got them” in their homes, and “staying home doesn’t help anymore after we flattened this curve.” He also warned the media to now “be super, super careful” about criticizing people who violate stay-at-home orders.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade asked: “Are people’s homes petri dishes? Why are we getting in trouble for sitting in the sand on a wide open beach because we are not at home?"

Fox host Tucker Carlson congratulated Cuomo for “admitting” the statistic, because “that’s always the first step.” His guest, Fox medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, then claimed that the statistic proves that New York should “let some of our people get back to work.”

Lockdown critic and Fox analyst Brit Hume tweeted: “Live and learn, I suppose. And the sooner our leaders learn the better.”

The Daily Wire declared a “LOCKDOWN BACKFIRE” and re-upped Cuomo’s comments from March 26 when he questioned whether quarantine was not “the best public health policy,” lamenting that “the Democrat is continuing with his lockdown policy.” 

An article in RedState essentially declared that social distancing doesn’t work:

Rush Limbaugh also weighed in, saying, “So do lockdowns even work? Was the lockdown even necessary? If 66% of coronavirus hospitalizations in the epicenter are people who stayed at home and were not essential workers, what was the point?”