The lieutenant governor of Texas says “hundreds” of older constituents have told him they would rather gamble with death than see the economy ruined by a coronavirus lockdown.

“I’m not living in fear of COVID-19. What I’m living in fear of is what’s happening to this country,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who turns 70 next week, told Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show Monday.

“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?”‘ said Patrick, who admits he’s “in the high-risk pool.”

“And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”

Patrick insisted he has “talked to hundreds of people” in the last week who are more worried about giving future generations a “shot at the American dream” than being in the small percentage killed in the pandemic.

“Everyone says pretty much the same thing: that we can’t lose our whole country,” he said, fearing “total economic collapse and potentially a collapse of our society” with an extended lockdown.

“Let’s get back to work. Let’s get back to living,” he told Carlson. “Don’t sacrifice the country.”

Shocked, Carlson clarified that his guest meant that death was “not the scariest thing” about the pandemic.

“Yeah,” Patrick insisted. “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.”