'We Will See More Deaths': Colorado Doctor On Opening Economy Too Soon

DENVER (CBS4)- As citizens and politicians in Colorado and around the nation debate when to lift stay-at-home orders, a Colorado public health expert says reopening the state's economy now "will cost people their lives."

Dr. Lee Newman, a researcher, physician, public health practitioner, and educator at the
Colorado School of Public Health, told CBS4 on Thursday that allowing people to resume normal lives now, "would be a death sentence. It would be exposing more people to the COVID -19 virus and those people will suffer the consequences."

He said he had no questions about what would happen if public health orders keeping people at home are lifted too soon.

"There's not a doubt that we will see more deaths if we change what we are doing right now. To open up our streets and our communities, if we do it too soon, that's a mathematical certainty."

Newman's comments came a day after thousands of people protested in Lansing, Michigan, surrounding the state capitol in a protest against the state's stay-at-home order.

A similar protest is planned for Sunday in Denver. With Colorado's stay-at-home order in effect until April 26, Gov. Jared Polis has said it could be extended, or dropped sooner depending on what data reveals about coronavirus trends in the state.

State officials have said they need better testing before they could consider lifting the measure.

RELATED: Latest Updates On The Coronavirus Outbreak In Colorado

A group calling itself "Colorado Freedom Force" has begun an online petition calling for Colorado's stay-at-home order to be immediately lifted.

"It's time to re-open Colorado. We have won the battle of flattening the curve," proclaims the group's website.

Former State Senator Kevin Lundberg, affiliated with the "Freedom Force" and one of those pushing for the stay at home order to be lifted, told Kyle Clark of KUSA, "I totally reject the contention that if the Governor removes the mandates that more people will die," Lundberg said. "Let's try freedom again. We need to move forward and in my opinion we need to move forward now. I don't think a whole lot would change."

Newman, who has spent much of his career studying occupational health, warns that move would be a grave mistake.

"If we open our economy right now and bow to that pressure, we will cost people their lives."

He said he could not predict precisely how many people would be sickened or die but said it would be more than if the order remained in place.

"You have to ask yourself, if you're pressing for that economic salvage to start now, are you prepared to pay that price with your own health and serve up the health of others around you? I think this would be a big mistake to move right now."