Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum called for the reopening of the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday, arguing that the number of victims of the coronavirus could be less than those of the 2018 flu season.

“I think we’re going to have a long period, obviously a very difficult economic distress, and you cannot help but look at the numbers that caused it and the models which were incorrect that really were one of the biggest push points to shut down the United States economy,” MacCallum declared on Bill Hemmer Reports.

“It is quite possible that you’re going to end up with numbers of fatalities in this Covid-19 tragedy of those that have been affected that will be south of the numbers in the 2018 flu season,” she argued, adding, “Remember, the losses of 61,000 people in 2018 in the flu season was after vaccinations. After vaccinations. That’s the number that were lost in America.”

“So when you reevaluate this economic decision, this total shutdown, almost total shutdown of the country, and the businesses that will fail because of it, the ramifications of that are going to be something that we deal with long after the mourning process of those that were lost in this,” MacCallum continued. “And those small businesses are hurting. You look at it like the manicure places, the catering shops, everything in your hometown, on and on, hair salons and everything, the whole bit, that are just struggling so mightily.”

The anchor concluded, “We certainly hope that they can get open soon. That’s really the key. Opening the country back up is the key. That’s what will save these companies.”

Comparisons of the coronavirus to the seasonal flu have been controversial since the beginning of the pandemic, and two of MacCallum’s talking points — that the virus is no worse than the flu and that the United States overreacted based on contentious data — were featured in the Washington Post’s “6 zombie claims about the coronavirus that just won’t go away” on Wednesday.

Watch above via Fox News.

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