Dr. Phil McGraw joined Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday during a web exclusive broadcast to discuss the larger impact of the economic shutdown from the coronavirus.
“This is invisible, I can’t show you an x-ray of depression, I can’t show you an x-ray of anxiety, but the fact of the matter is the longer this lock down goes on, the more vulnerable people get, and it’s like there’s a tipping point,” McGraw said. “There’s a point at which people start having enough problems in lock down that it will actually create more destruction and actually more death across time then the actual virus will itself. 250 people a year die from poverty, and the poverty line is getting such that more and more people are going to fall below that because the economy is crashing around us, and they’re doing that because people are dying from the coronavirus, I get that.”
McGraw continued, “But look, the fact of the matter is we have people dying, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don’t shut the country down for that, but yet we’re doing it for this and the fallout is going to last for years because people’s lives are being destroyed.”
A quick fact check of McGraw’s numbers shows that he was accurate on the smoking numbers; he was pretty close on the car accident number and was only a few thousand too high; and he was significantly off on the drowning numbers as approximately 3,500 people drown in the U.S. per year. However, globally, 320,000 people drown per year.
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
FOX NEWS HOST LAURA INGRAHAM: More than 90% of Americans are still living under stay at home orders that might change with the president’s new reopening, but it’s meant to halt the spread of the virus, but the economic devastation being caused by these lock downs may be creating a new pandemic, one of mass anxiety and helplessness.
This is heartbreaking and you hear these stories all day long. Now we have 22 million people out of work, and millions of business owners are facing insolvency, so how many of our fellow Americans are feeling stressed and panicked like the women you just saw?
Joining me now is Dr. Phil McGraw, psychologist, author, and host of Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil, thanks so much for being on with us. I think this isn’t part of the calculation of you know the bending the curve and all of those graphs that we see and they’re very interesting, I’m not saying they’re not important, but those comments aren’t taken into consideration when we look at those graphs.
DR. PHIL MCGRAW: Well Laura, they never are and thank you for having me on, and thank you for giving a voice to this because it’s so very important. This is invisible, I can’t show you an x-ray of depression, I can’t show you an x-ray of anxiety, but the fact of the matter is the longer this lock down goes on, the more vulnerable people get, and it’s like there’s a tipping point.
There’s a point at which people start having enough problems in lock down that it will actually create more destruction and actually more death across time then the actual virus will itself. 250 people a year die from poverty, and the poverty line is getting such that more and more people are going to fall below that because the economy is crashing around us, and they’re doing that because people are dying from the coronavirus, I get that.
But look, the fact of the matter is we have people dying, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don’t shut the country down for that, but yet we’re doing it for this and the fallout is going to last for years because people’s lives are being destroyed.
INGRHAM: And Dr. Phil, just conversations with business owners who I’ve gotten to know over the years, I come from a family that owned a small business, a car wash, and so I’m always, my heart is always with the people who get you know frankly screwed, I hate that word ‘screwed’ in situations like this, but the restaurateurs, their employees are their families, that’s their family, they’ve had the same employees for 30 years, and these are grown men in tears and they’re like I can’t sleep and these are grown men.