Dr. Ben Carson (Screenshot)

The U.S. had “an incredibly strong economy” going into the coronavirus pandemic – but, the economy will be completely lost if the country waits until “the last vestige” of COVID-19 is eliminated, HUD Sec. Dr. Ben Carson warned Thursday.

“If we wait until everything is gone, our economy will be gone also,” Carson, a member of President Donald Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, said in an interview on Fox News Channel:

“We had, going into this, an incredibly strong economy. And, things were going very well. The fundamentals, the underlying structure of our economy is very solid and very strong. So, what we want to do is we want to maintain that economy, bridge the gap. And, that means you’re going to have to infuse some significant federal funds. But, we want to keep things going, so that, once the virus problem has been eliminated, we can go back. “And, it doesn’t mean that we have to wait until the last vestige of the virus is gone. “Common sense would dictate that, if we wait until everything is gone, our economy will be gone also.”

Still, everything in life has risks and benefits that must be weighed against each other – “And, that’s what a task force does,” Carson said: