Meghan McCain defends Rand Paul: The country can't just stay in lockdown 'for the foreseeable future'

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"The View" co-host Meghan McCain cautioned on Wednesday that states with more onerous coronavirus restrictions could see residents flee to those with more lax rules.

"I think what we're going to see is different states benefiting in different ways," he said.

"Because some of the things I'm hearing is that people are just going to move to states like Georgia and Florida and Texas and decide to live their lives there, and flee these major cities that aren’t letting people live in any kind of substantial way."

Her comments came as the co-hosts were discussing an exchange between Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who's helping to lead the federal government's coronavirus response. Fauci had cautioned against reopening the economy too soon, as he predicted that doing so could "turn back the clock" on the progress that governments have made against the pandemic.

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Sen. Rand Paul expressed frustration with his cautions. The Kentucky Republican said Fauci was not the “end all” in knowledge about the coronavirus.

McCain agreed.

"There are a lot of different ways to die from COVID -- we're seeing suicide spikes at unprecedented numbers, 1,000 percent rise in the suicide hotlines here in the United States of America," she said.

"There's depression at absolutely exponential levels, and I think the question a lot of people have been raising is -- I think all of us have been very responsible, at least here on this show -- and have abided by the rules."

She added that the U.S. would have to reach some sort of middle ground because the coronavirus shutdown was devastating to many.

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"Right now, there's a lot of feelings of hopelessness that this is just where we're at -- that we're going to be sheltering in place, not just to flatten the curve, but we're going to be sheltering in place until we find a vaccine -- until there are no deaths in America whatsoever, but at the same time we are going to bankrupt this country and not have enough ink and printers to have enough money to get us out of it."

"So, I think there has to be more than just we're locking down the country for the foreseeable future."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.