Tucker Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio, in New York, Thursday, March 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

When it comes to the Wuhan virus epidemic, much of the country, including our leaders, are in uncharted territory. We see what’s happening to other countries and, in order to mitigate the spread of the virus, many leaders are essentially shutting down their cities in response. They limit the number of people that can gather, close bars and restaurants, and make it a fineable crime to run your business.

For corporations, this may not hurt that much, but for small businesses, this could be the end. It’s a small business, but it’s no small matter. This isn’t just a few family-run businesses here and there. Millions could lose their jobs and their livelihoods.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson talked about this very thing on Monday night during his program and noted that when it comes to shutting down our economy to fight the virus, we invite a different kind of health risk to plague us.

While Carlson noted it’s important to do what we can to stem the tide of infection, we also have to strike a balance. He warned that a severe recession could strike costing millions of people their jobs, leaving people in poverty.

“At the same time though, we need to protect our economy, and it’s not just something that Wall Street cares about, to be totally clear,” said Carlson. “Economic decline is dangerous for everyone, especially at the bottom of the economy. It’s a legitimate human concern. It’s not just financial, it’s about families.”

“From a public health standpoint, that makes sense, but what would be the consequences of doing that? Millions and millions of people would lose their jobs, some of them for good. We would enter a severe recession with mass unemployment and it could get worse from there. It’s not a joke, that could happen,” said he continued.

“You would see an awful lot of people in poverty in middle America and that poses its own kind of public health risk. Poor countries are never healthy countries. If you want great health care, you’ve got to pay for it and you have to have money to do so,” he said.

Carlson is correct. Not only does poverty pose many health risks that put an even greater burden on the system, but it’s also a cause of mass suicide. The recession that began in 2007 was responsible for some 10,000 suicides according to CBS News. It’s not hard to understand why. Losing everything you’ve worked hard to build in the blink of an eye and being left destitute weighs heavily. Hope is hard to come by.

If we allow our leaders to shut down everything in order to stem the flow of a virus that drastically affects few, we may be facing even greater problems down the line, and sooner rather than later. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t take the virus seriously. We should do what we can to protect our most vulnerable, however, to put the economy on pause leaves everyone vulnerable and in long-lasting ways.

(h/t: Daily Caller)