Fox anchor: “Every life matters ... but when the mortality rate is that low, what is the balance?”

As medical guest urges Trump not to lift restrictions, Ed Henry asks about “the balance” between deaths and the economy

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the March 24, 2020, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

ED HENRY (HOST): And on top of that, Dr. Birx yesterday at the same news conference, Dr. Hotez, said the best estimate of the mortality rate here in the United States is .7 or .8 percent, as in less than 1 percent. Now, every life matters and you don't want to minimize any of them, but when the mortality rate is that low, what is the balance, what would be your advice to the president if, say, he is trying to make this decision this coming weekend ahead of the expiration of the 15 days to slow the spread. 

DR. PETER HOTEZ: So what I would tell the president, I'd say, “Mr. President, you know, the mortality rate, that may sound like a low rate, but in fact it's about five or six times higher than influenza," and what's more it's not just older individuals, we have a lot, we are seeing, according to the Centers for Disease Control, we are seeing about a third of the patients who are hospitalized under the age of 40, or 44. And even though they are not necessarily dying, their lives are being saved because they are in ICUs being taken care of. And the risk, I mean, [indecipherable] like Italy right now, you have so many patients in ICUs that they just can't take care of them all, and you are starting to see high mortality. So I would say, look, let's get one public health victory under our belts here in terms of whats going on in New York, maybe we're looking at another month, and then reassess. And I agree, you know, we can't stop our economy in perpetuity, or even for two years, but I think if you do it now while the numbers are still steeply climbing in New York. And remember, now we're seeing a new epidemic coming on in New Orleans. So we don't really fully understand how this epidemic is going to play out. It's a brand new virus, pathogen.