Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the country never should have been locked down and is blaming the “wrong numbers” and “wrong science” for devastating the state and national economies.

“Our country should not have been locked down,” Patrick, a Republican from Montgomery County said on a Fox News Channel program with host Tucker Carlson.

Patrick said while every life is valuable, Texas had lost only about 500 people, but the economy has been destroyed because of the stay-at-home orders. Nearly every governor in the nation issued such an order, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who signed a stay-at-home order three weeks ago to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Patrick, 70, took issue with the science that has been cited to justify the lockdowns. He said at the end of January, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was saying the virus wasn’t a big issue. Then weeks later, 2 million Americans were predicted to die, Patrick said. Then it was 100,000 to 200,000 deaths. Now it might be under 60,000.

“They told us, Tucker, follow the science,” Patrick said. “Well, what science?”

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Patrick said the numbers and science have been wrong.

“But let’s face reality of where we are,” Patrick said. “In Texas, we have 29 million people and we’ve lost 495 — and every life is valuable. But 500 people out of 29 million and we’re locked down and we’re crushing the average worker. We’re crushing small business. We’re crushing the markets. We’re crushing this country.”

The number of COVID-19 fatalities estimated for Texas through August 4 has been adjusted downward from 6,000 to less than 1,000 by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which provides data to the White House.

But coronavirus expert Peter Hotez, a professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says the new estimates show that social distancing measures adopted early in the state are working.

“We avoided the horrors they’re suffering in New York and New Jersey because we social-distanced before the virus had gotten here in a significant way,” Hotez said in a Monday interview with Hearst Newspapers. “Early social distancing, before transmission had been going on for a few weeks, really saved parts of Texas, especially Houston.

“Now we have to be careful not to get too complacent. It's too soon to start high-fiving each other. Things could still go wrong.”

Patrick also doubled down Monday on comments he made in late March, when he said he and other seniors would be willing to risk their lives to get the economy back up and running.

Those remarks drew fire from critics including Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, who called Patrick “a very troubled man. And dangerous to Texans and Americans.”

ESTIMATES FOR TEXAS COVID-19 DEATHS DOWN TO 1,000: Coronavirus expert Peter Hotez says social distancing saved Houston, but don’t get complacent.”

Patrick said Monday that there are “more important things than living.” And that, he said, includes making sure the country is saved for his children and grandchildren.

“And I don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die,” Patrick said. “But man, we’ve got to take some risks and get back in the game and get this country back up and running.”

Patrick did not take issue with Abbott for ordering the stay-at-home order but instead took aim at Democratic governors and local Democrats in Texas for imposing restrictive orders.

“And everywhere you see this draconian rules of locking down people and keeping businesses shut and destroying our country…” Patrick said. “It’s mostly Democratic governors. Democrat county judges, Democrat mayors. Almost everywhere.”

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, issued a countywide “Stay Home, Work Safe” order on March 24 that closed non-essential businesses.

That was the same day San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, an independent, and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a Democrat, put in place a similar stay-at-home that closed non-essential businesses.