In this segment of The Dennis Prager Radio Show, Dennis Prager argues that the COVID‑19 lockdowns and stay‑at‑home orders in the United States have caused far more damage than the virus itself. He claims hospitals are not overwhelmed, but mental‑health crisis lines are, indicating a hidden cost. Prager compares COVID‑19 mortality to seasonal flu deaths, noting that the flu kills tens of thousands annually without triggering massive government action. He cites Sweden’s relatively unrestricted response as a model of weighing costs versus benefits. Throughout, he frames the pandemic response as a slippery slide toward socialism, asserting that Americans are more eager for government handouts than for liberty. He repeatedly criticizes New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for imposing strict measures, using Cuomo’s own statements (“what’s worse than death?”) to illustrate what Prager sees as a disregard for economic and mental‑health harms. The discussion also touches on the impact on workers without pay, the inadequacy of unemployment benefits, and the broader moral question of sacrificing individual freedom for perceived safety. The tone is confrontational, persuasive, and heavily ideological, positioning the lockdown policies as an overreach that threatens American values.
Chapters
The hospitals are not being overwhelmed. The suicide lines are being overwhelmed. I'm not the only voice that has said that we have gone way too far in isolation. Governor Cuomo, big advocate of it. Of course, he's the governor of the state that has the most because of New York City. Why people in upstate New York can't leave their homes except to take a walk and are not allowed to make an income as a result because New York City is cursed with this virus is a question that history will ask and will not have a favorable judgment of Governor Cuomo's and, and the rest, not just Governor Cuomo. We have lived to see the biggest panic in American history. There is nothing close. I have warned against hysteria my whole life, as you all know, and now the, uh, the price is being paid. 50,000 Americans, it is, it is said, have died from this disease. In any given flu year. Now, it's obviously more, more lethal more quickly than the regular flu, but I do want to remind you, as I do almost every day, that 2 years ago between 60,000 and 80,000 Americans died of the regular flu and nobody talked about it. Will they talk about it next year? Be interesting. One country in the world withstood the pressure of the world— Sweden. They had more deaths than Norway and Denmark, the countries they're compared to, and they, they weighed, which is what mature people are supposed to do, but maturity is at a premium in our time. You weigh cost of the cost and what you gain. People are getting checks from the government with money that is increasingly worthless because Democrats will not allow any, any reduction in the benefits that the government pays out to people. It's not the government's job, as it happens, but the road to socialism is as smooth as butter. People want to be taken care of more than they want liberty. There's a woman in San Diego, I'd like to get her on the show, Living Martyr. She is leading, she's been leading the protests and she's been threatened with arrest. The amount of liberties deprived Americans And the ease with which Americans have accepted it is scarier to me than the virus. I'm an old-fashioned guy. I'm a liberty lover. Liberty is a great value, and it's not treasured by the human species. It isn't. I've said that, as you know.
Everything— it's very sad.
Everything I've said I believe has come to be accurate. The last thing I give a hoot about is boasting to you. I don't boast. I don't self-denigrate. I'm very realistic about me and about life. But when I've said all along, people don't yearn to be free. They yearn to be taken care of. This is— you're living it now. It's not the land of the free and the home of the brave. You know, I dropped that a decade ago from the national anthem. My mother used to say to my father, "Don't let him out, he has a cold, or he'll get a cold." And my father would say, "What are you going to do, keep him in a china closet?" And I— it's funny because when my father first said it for the first few years, I thought, does that mean a closet made in China? I had no idea what it meant, but I did understand that there are risks in life. My father fought in World War II. I wonder, there are very few left of the veterans of World War II, but I wonder what they think about the inability of Americans to confront risk, to be paralyzed, to bring down a way of life because of an infinitesimally small risk. Do you understand that? It's unbelievable. People are afraid for their children. Children overwhelmingly don't get the coronavirus. It is exceedingly rare. It is almost unheard of. Yet we close the schools. The havoc that is brought into people's lives. But Governor Cuomo was asked about this, and he has his famous answer: hey, what's worse than death? There you go. There were no Governor Cuomo's in 1957 when the United States suffered 116,000 deaths from the flu that year. This is a new generation. It's a frightened generation. It's frightened because it takes health and safety and everything for granted. That's why. People are protected from the vicissitudes of life. This is Governor Cuomo at a news conference today. Not today. Two days ago. Why didn't we play it yesterday?
Regular people who are not getting a paycheck, some of them are not getting their unemployment and they're saying that they don't have time to wait for all of this testing and they need to get back to work in order to feed their families. Their savings is running out. They don't have another week. They're not getting answers. So their point is—
they'll get an answer now.
The cure can't be worse than the illness itself. What is your response to them?
The illness is death.
That's the answer.
What is worse than death?
Well, what if somebody commits suicide because they can't pay their bills?
Yeah, but the illnesses may be my death as opposed to your death.
Oh, so he's worried about himself.
You said they said—
Wait, wait, wait, leave it, leave it for a moment.
This is an amazing thing.
It's clear though, I love the clarity. Look, he said if everything he's done, if the ruined lives are worth it, he said it. If I save one life, right? Remember that? That's the thing I played over and over from Governor Cuomo. If just save one life and it's my death. Too bad she didn't ask, wow, well, what about a billion around the world, Governor? You know how many deaths from starvation the UN predicts? Tens of millions death because of this. You who want a lockdown are killing more people than the virus. Is that clear, ladies and gentlemen? That's a fact. That is not an opinion. It is a fact. The shutdown has killed more people than the virus. You who think you love life, you are self-deluded. You think you're, you're heroes.
Because that's the way people think.
I don't think I'm a hero. I think I'm being real. You don't give a damn about the tens of millions outside of America.
You, the, you, you know, we are people of the world. We don't believe in American nationalism, but your entire frame of reference is America.
So I could shatter your life because I, Governor Cuomo, will continue to get my income. I believe everybody who advocates that people not get an income, not get an income. Why is that not logical? I will continue to make my money, you can't make your money, and I'm a good man. Get it? Because I don't want to get sick. And that this is considered noble, this is considered compassionate. What would my dad have said to Governor Cuomo?
Probably he would have asked my mother to pass him a vomit bag. That's what I think. God, my father's ships, 2 years, 2, 3 years in the Navy, targets of kamikaze planes. I don't think this would have, he would have supported, yeah, you don't make a living, that's right. That's okay with me because, hey, the other is death. You know how few people have died? The other is death. There you go. That answers the issue. Let her visit the people who have to go into breadlines for the first time since the Depression, thanks to his policies.
The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free
