The plan, however, needs to take into account realities on the ground and still include measures to stem the epidemic.
Reopening the economy wouldn’t necessarily apply to older Texans and people with preexisting conditions, who are most likely to suffer severe symptoms of the virus.
“If that describes you, you should stay home,” Cruz said.
He also implied the plan wouldn’t apply to areas where there are severe outbreaks.
“I think we can do things in reasonable steps, guided by science in the Public Health,“ he said. ”It needs to be dependent upon the particular facts and circumstances in the particular region.
“New York City right now, where they’re facing massive numbers, it would not make sense for everyone in New York City to go back to work tomorrow.”
Even for the “young and healthy,” there may need to be restrictions, Cruz said, mentioning “jobs where there’s some risks.”
“It may be that when people go back to work that they wear a mask and gloves for some period of time to limit the spread of disease,” he said.
Many of the people who continue to work because their jobs are deemed essential are already taking such precautions, he noted.
“We’ve seen that all the time,” he said. “If you’ve ordered food, if you’ve ordered takeout ... most of the drivers who show up dropping off food are wearing masks and gloves.”
The CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last year and was allowed to spread around the world, due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) coverup and mismanagement of the outbreak.
The United States has had more than 610,000 confirmed cases and almost 28,000 deaths from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The stringent measures to counter the epidemic, such as ordering people to stay home and shutting down all non-essential businesses, have had a heavy toll on the economy. More than 16 million people have lost jobs in the past several weeks, jobless claims data indicate.
Cruz said the human toll from the virus needs to be balanced against the indirect public health issues related to economic well-being.
“Keeping the economy shut down for weeks—if we allow that to turn into months, we’re going to see human lives lost, we’re going to see real devastation, from poverty, from dreams shattered, from family businesses put out of business, from people whose savings are lost,” he said. “And that’s going to lead to mental health issues, that’s going to lead to depression, it’s going to lead to substance abuse, it’s going to lead to increased suicide. All of those are very real public health threats as well. And so our objective needs to be to protect the most lives possible.”
