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Millions of Americans are at home, heeding the advice of medical professionals and epidemiologists who have urged them to refrain from gathering in groups and to take unprecedented actions to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

But former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker thinks the nation needs to get back to work.

For more than a year since his retirement, Corker has largely kept quiet on national affairs. Now, with COVID-19 spreading across the nation, he is again speaking out vocally about what he thinks should be done — and working behind the scenes to push his viewpoint.

The two-term Republican senator from Tennessee left office in January 2019 with a somewhat tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump, with whom he had engaged off-and-on in public spats during his final two years in Washington.

But a year out of office and now settled back in his hometown, the former Chattanooga mayor is finally speaking up to weigh in on policy again, and this time, he's siding with Trump on the coronavirus pandemic.

Corker contends that it's time for the country to quickly resume work and commerce.

That's in an effort, he says, to save the economy from lasting damage imparted by measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19, a highly contagious virus that has wreaked havoc on healthcare systems and killed nearly 20,000 worldwide.

"Should my generation be willing to have a degree of sacrifice and risk so that younger generations can have a better life?" Corker, 67, said in an interview Tuesday evening. "I think so."

Newsletter:Stay safe and informed with updates on the spread of the coronavirus.

Watching the news unfold last week as businesses closed around the nation, the stock market hit record lows and American families began isolating in their homes — as they have been urged to do by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and federal, state and local officials — Corker said he was frustrated that there was a "missing element" in the debate: the long-term impact of shutting down the economy and the effect that will have on livelihoods.

"The fear that I see in people's eyes is the fear of small business people watching their entire life's work vanish," Corker said. "The fear of the working poor realizing they're not sure how they're going to be able to support their families."

According to a spokesperson, now that he is out of office, Corker has invested in a number of companies and is once again heavily involved in the Chattanooga community. He previously ran construction, real estate and development companies and served as Tennessee's finance commissioner before eventually becoming mayor of Chattanooga, a position Corker held from 2001-2005.

Frustrated, Corker has worked the phones for days

He picked up the phone Thursday and called another former senator — one he declined to identify other than the senator served before Corker was in office — and from there decided to spend the coming days working the phones.

"I did feel like I had some credibility," he said. "I felt like I had some political capital that needed to be burnt at this time."

Corker called editorial writer after editorial writer to convey his position and urge them to raise the question of what the cost will be if the economy remains at a standstill for months, or even weeks. That includes the nation's "standard of living, people's lives, the misery index we'll pay for for decades if we get it wrong," Corker said.

More:Bracing for recession, Nashville economy enters survival mode

Some listened to his urging. Some weren't interested.

He said he has in recent days spoken on the phone or texted with advisers close to the president, with former presidential chiefs of staff and with former treasury secretaries, among others with influence, urging them to shift the conversation.

"I do think that that our input has affected, to the degree one person can, the national debate," Corker said.

On Thursday evening, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial outlining similar concerns and urging a speedy return to a sense of normalcy and a coronavirus strategy that does not amount to a "national lockdown." They followed with a similar editorial Tuesday night.

On Sunday, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman outlined his fears about delaying a return to work and its impact on the economy, stressing the need to expand testing while soon urging those not deemed vulnerable to the virus to return to work.

That night, Trump tweeted that the country "cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," using a line, not quite verbatim, from Friedman's column.

Trump, who last week said he expected that large-scale mitigation and social distancing efforts could be forced to continue until August, on Tuesday changed course, announcing that he intended for much of the American public to be back to their normal lives and jobs by Easter.

"Candidly, I wish it were sooner than that," Corker said of Trump's April 12 target date.

Tennessee governor says he wants to protect lives and livelihoods

Speaking to reporters during a virtual news briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Bill Lee discussed weighing the balance between preserving as many lives as possible and preserving Tennesseans' ability maintain their ways of life.

But Lee, who has faced criticism for being slower than some other governors to impose restrictions, was now unapologetic about needing to prioritize the saving of lives.

"We have a public health crisis, there's no doubt about it," Lee said. "And what motivates me in our decision-making process is that if we don’t address this public health crisis, Tennesseans are going to lose their lives. Some already have. More will."

Lee also noted the "unfolding economic crisis" that will affect not only health care in the state, but mental health and poverty levels.

While some governors have issued stay-at-home orders and called for all non-essential businesses to close, Lee has not gone that far, despite mayors in the state's largest cities enacting their own similar orders. He has urged all schools to remain closed until April 24, required that restaurants and bars eliminate dine-in seating and ordered gyms to close.

"We are very thoughtful about the fact that we want to protect Tennesseans' lives and their health, and we also want to protect their livelihoods," Lee said.

"We don’t think you have to sacrifice one for the other, and we don’t think you have to choose. We actually think if we do this right, we can mitigate both to the highest degree possible."

Tennessee state Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, has been outspoken about the need for increased testing, among other temporary restrictions, as a major first step in hastening a return to normalcy and a fix to the economy.

"We're at a point in which doctors are determining how they are going to allocate limited treatment resources to patients that outnumber those resources," Yarbro said. "You can't talk about opening up the economy overly quickly without grappling with the life and death ethical choices we will face as a country."

To those who are speaking up in favor of returning to normal life without the country having the spread of the coronavirus under control, Yarbro said he would ask how they, personally, feel doctors should decide how to use finite resources and supplies in the face of growing numbers of sick patients.

"If we're going to have a debate about rushing to reopen the country contrary to medical experts' advice, the people pushing that agenda have to answer the question about who gets to live and who is going to be denied treatment," Yarbro said.

Corker argues that different regions of the country can be dealt with differently, depending on the severity of a certain area's COVID-19 outbreak.

Focusing on identifying the vulnerable population and continuing to put safeguards in place for them, while allowing younger people to return to work could provide a gradual transition back to normal life, Corker suggested.

"I would say I absolutely value human life," Corker said.

Other conservatives who have made comments similar to his, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who on Monday had urged older adults to be willing to risk their health to allow the country to get back to work — have been rebuked for prioritizing the economy over people.

"I value human life for all of those people who are coming after me," Corker said. "And that’s why this debate is so important."

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

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