Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is willing to risk his own life in the midst of the coronavirus crisis if it means getting the country back on its feet sooner.

The Republican lawmaker told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday that he is following official guidelines in dealing with the global pandemic and realizes he is in the “high-risk pool” because of his age, but he explained his willingness to risk his health in order for the U.S. to “get back to work.”

(Source: Fox News)

“I’m not living in fear of COVID-19, I’m living in fear of what’s happening to this country,” Patrick, who turns 70 next week, said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday, speaking after President Donald Trump commented at a press briefing that officials “will be using data to recommend new protocols to allow local economies to cautiously resume their activity at the appropriate time,”

“No one reached out to me and said as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren. And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick told Carlson.

“I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me — I have six grandchildren — that what we all care about and what we love more than anything are those children, and I want to live smart and see through this, but I don’t want the whole country to be sacrificed. And that’s what I see,” he said, adding that his “heart is lifted” by the president’s words.

“We’re having an economic collapse. I’m also a small businessman. I understand it,” Patrick, a radio station owner and a conservative talk radio host in the 1990s, said.

“Let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves but don’t sacrifice the country. Don’t do that,” he added.

“You’re basically saying that this disease could take your life but that’s not the scariest thing to you. There’s something that would be worse than dying,” Carlson said.

“If I get sick, I’ll go and try to get better, but if I don’t, I don’t, and I’m not trying to think of any kind of morbid way, Tucker, I’m just saying that we’ve got a choice here and we are going to be in a total collapse, recession, depression, collapse in our society of this goes on another several months, there won’t be any jobs to come back to for many people,” Patrick replied.

He added that he and his “fellow grandparents” want to live and will live smart amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has more than 550 confirmed cases in the state of Texas and at least seven deaths.

“We all want to live with our grandchildren as long as we can, but the point is our biggest gift we give to our country and our children and our grandchildren is the legacy of our country,” he said. “And right now, that is at risk and I feel like as the president said, the mortality rate is so low, do we have to shut down the whole country for this? I think we can get back to work.”