The lieutenant governor of Texas is facing backlash after suggesting many grandparents in America would be willing to risk their health in order to see a resurgence in the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick appeared on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show Monday night where he shared his thoughts.

“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?’" Patrick said. “And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”

The Republican who turns 70 next week said Monday he believed “there are lots of grandparents” would make this choice and said “Let’s get back to work. Let’s get back to living.”

Seeking to clarify his remarks, Carlson said, “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.”

Patrick responded, “Look, I’m going to do everything I can to live but if you said, ‘Are you willing to take a chance?’ and you know if I get sick I’ll go and try to get better but if I don’t, I don’t.”

Patrick’s remarks echoed remarks shared by President Donald Trump earlier Monday during a briefing at the White House who seeks to businesses reopen their doors.

“Our country wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this. It was not built to be shut down,” the president said.

Soon after Patrick’s appearance on the Fox News, he faced backlash online.

The hashtag #NotDying4WallStreet trended overnight on Twitter, with people sharing responses to Patrick and the president’s comments.

Cases of COVID-19 passed 381,000 globally as of Tuesday morning. In the United States, there are more than 43,500 cases, including at least 541 deaths.

More than a dozen states have issued orders for residents to stay home seeking to slow the spread of the virus.

Gov. Charlie Baker announced Monday that Massachusetts would also shut down non-essential operations.

The order closes all non-essential businesses to workers and the public, except for essential workers, starting at noon on Tuesday and will remain in effect until April 7.

Essential workers include employees at grocery stores, pharmacies, mortuaries and transportation workers, as well as first responders, health care workers and others on the front lines of the coronavirus response.

“Every single act of distancing has purpose,” Baker said. “There is purpose in these drastic changes to the way we live.”

At least nine people in Massachusetts have died from COVID-19-related illness so far, beginning with the report of a man in his 80s from Winthrop as the first death on Friday, according to the state Department of Public Health. He had been hospitalized and had pre-existing health conditions that put him at a higher risk for the viral respiratory infection, according to DPH.

A total of 8,922 people have been tested in Massachusetts, including 777 who tested positive as of Monday afternoon.

Those who tested positive range in age from 19 Massachusetts residents 19 years old or younger to 107 residents 70 years old and order.

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