Former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney thinks the U.S. has “overreacted a little bit” to the coronavirus outbreak.
The former congressman and budget chief for the Trump administration told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that people can get back to work if they wear masks and practice social distancing.
Mulvaney’s Monday appearance was his first televised appearance since leaving the White House in March.
He said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new guidance indicating the virus doesn’t spread as easily by touching surfaces means restrictions can be dialed back some.
"The fact that it’s difficult to get this disease from touching stuff ... should sort of reset how we look at this," Mulvaney said on CNBC. "What it means is that if we are careful about social distancing and putting on masks and so forth, we should be able to go back to work sooner rather than later."
Mulvaney said he flew on an airplane over the weekend and would be "completely comfortable" sitting in a middle seat if passengers were wearing masks.
"I think we’ve sort of lost perspective on this a little bit, Joe, and we’ve overreacted a little bit," he told co-host Joe Kernen.
He said the country didn’t shut down during the 2017-2018 flu season, which killed about 80,000 Americans.
"Not to say that COVID is the ordinary flu, that’s not my point," Mulvaney said. "But my point is that almost 100,000 people died two years ago from flu and the country didn’t shut down. It’s time to sort of deal with this in the proper perspective, and that’s to allow us to get back to work safely."
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