Sen. John Kennedy Says World Economy Will Collapse If the U.S. Is Not Reopened

Senator John Kennedy said the U.S. economy would have to reopen to prevent a global economic slump, accepting that the novel coronavirus would spread faster when shutdowns end.

The Republican congressman told Fox News on Wednesday that a failure to reopen businesses would see the U.S. economy collapse and bring the world economy down with it.

But he also recognized that any decision to return life to some normality amid the COVID-19 pandemic would be difficult, saying it was like "choosing between cancer and a heart attack."

Speaking on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Sen. Kennedy said: "Here's the way I say it. The American people are not morons. They understand what I'm about to say, and at some point we're going to have to trust them.

"Number one, very soon the can is going to run out of road. We've got to open this economy. If we don't, it's going to collapse. And if the U.S. economy collapses, the world economy collapses.

"Trying to burn down the village to save it is foolish. That's a cold, hard truth."

The GOP congressman accepted that COVID-19 would spread faster when the country was taken out of its current lockdown.

"We've got to be smart about how we do it," he said. "Don't open up in the middle of a hotspot. Encourage your elderly and those with pre-existing conditions to stay quarantined and provide them financial support."

Sen. Kennedy went on to say people should carry on wearing masks and practice social distancing once shutdowns were lifted.

He also said it would be necessary for authorities to ensure the country had the healthcare capacity to deal with lockdown being lifted, and further recommended the use of technology to track those who have been exposed to the disease while still respecting privacy.

"This is like choosing between cancer and a heart attack," Kennedy later added. "It's a miserable choice."

The senator issued his call for the U.S. economy to be reopened a week after it was revealed that 10 percent of the U.S. labor force had made unemployment claims in just three weeks.

Department of Labor data showed that an unprecedented 6.6 million people made initial claims for unemployment benefit in the week ending April 4. In the two weeks before, a little more than 10 million also sought jobless insurance.

David Wilcox, a former director of the Federal Reserve Board's Division of Research and Statistics, told Newsweek that the unemployment figures were at a "level previously unimaginable."

The number of novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. have also reached significant levels. At the time of writing, more than 639,000 cases of the disease have been confirmed in America. According to Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 tracker, a total of 30,985 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in the U.S. along with 52,738 total recoveries.