Daytime talk show host Dr. Phil is getting slammed over his comments comparing car and swimming pool accidents to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, Dr. Phil McGraw appeared as a guest on “The Ingraham Angle” show to discuss the current climate amid the COVID-19 outbreak and how the stay-at-home orders may be impacting people’s mental health.
“The fact of the matter is, the longer this lockdown 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 lockdown that it will actually create more destruction and actually more deaths across time than the actual virus will itself,” said McGraw. The TV host went on to seemingly explain that there is no reason for the country to take such extreme precaution when people die every day from accidents or smoking, USA Today reports.
“Two hundred fifty 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 said. He added: “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.”
It didn’t take long for his words to inflict anger amongst viewers, many calling out his illogical way of thinking. “Dr. Phil went on Fox News + said we shouldn’t shut the country down because of COVID. He claimed 360,000 people die every year from swimming pool accidents, and we ‘don’t shut the country down for that.’ Actual number is 3,600. + swimming pool accidents aren’t contagious Phil,” tweeted Michael Skolnik.
McGraw ended up responding to the backlash in a Facebook Live video on Friday, saying he stands by the social distancing guidelines the CDC has put forth in regard to the pandemic. He said that he has supported the shutdown to “protect what is perhaps a small percentage of those for whom this virus is most dangerous.”
“What I believe, regardless of what I may have come across as saying, is we need widespread testing and continued protection of the high-risk portion of the population. Last night I said we as a society have chosen to live with certain controllable deadly risk every day, smoking, auto crashes, swimming and yes I know that those are not contagious, so probably bad examples,” said McGraw. He ended his remarks saying that we should work with one another and practice social distancing to keep everyone safe. “If you didn’t like my choice of words, I apologize for that,” McGraw said. “Know this, I’m concerned about you, that’s my number one concern here.”
