Fox News medical contributor Marc Siegel said Wednesday that lockdowns may have actually made the coronavirus worse on Americans — producing “more deaths from despair.”
“Suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism. It’s going to be more deaths from despair than from the virus itself … That is our virus,” Siegel told Flox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“Lockdowns don’t work if there is already a lot of virus in the area, in the community, in the area, in the state, in the country. J.P. Morgan came out with a study today that’s really shocking: it showed that the European countries that were locked down did not do as well, have not done as well as the countries who weren’t and that applies to the United States too, where over 20 states that have come out of lockdown have actually seen an decreased number of cases. (RELATED: Judge Napolitano Urges People To Push Back ‘Unconstitutional’ Lockdowns)
The doctor mentioned the absence of coronavirus cases in South Dakota “which was never in lockdown” and says Hong Kong has had a remarkably low death rate from the virus despite being on the border with China.
“You know why they have been able to do so well with only four deaths from COVID-19? Because the people behave: they knew from SARS, they knew from Hong Kong flu, they knew how to do social distancing. It wasn’t locking down.”
Siegel insisted that locking down doesn’t alleviate the coronavirus when it has already struck but accentuates the health care crisis.
“You know what locking down does? Locking down destroys our health care system to the point where we have more heart attacks that are not going to the hospital now. More strokes that are not going to the hospital now. More cancer that is not being screened. Our cancer screening is down 90%.” (Tucker Carlson: Los Angeles Is Controlled By “Neurotic Megalomaniac” Mayor Eric Garcetti)
Siegel note that 80% of those surveyed, “are afraid to go to the emergency room right now.” The doctor said that “deaths from despair” could surpass 75,000 in the U.S. “because of COVID-19 and people not having jobs.”
Then-Michigan Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer addresses the 37th United Auto Workers Constitutional Convention June14, 2018 at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Frustration at not being able to go to work or even get a haircut has erupted in anti-lockdown protests across America. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been the focus of backlash from opponents who object to the severity of her state lockdown order.
Republican lawmakers, who control the Michigan legislature and want to curb the governor’s growing executive powers, served Whitmer with a lawsuit this month.
Others see lockdowns as a clear violation of civil liberties and an excuse for governors and mayors to assume more power.