I think part of the problem is that people like this guy and his constituents simply don't yet understand the nightmare that awaits them, their families and friends, and their constituents.
As far as I can tell from what I read, a lot of commentators in the US who favour this approach are seeing Covid-19 simply as a particularly nasty form of flu which carries with it a high risk of death for older patients but will be, for most people, a very unpleasant and debilitating episode from which they will nevertheless recover.
That's true as far as it goes, but they aren't considering the full implications of all this.
This table shows the data to date about Covid-19 patients in the US who require hospitalisation:
Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19
Certainly the figures in the right-hand column, for case-fatality, suggest that the mortality rate for the disease increases dramatically with age, but the two central columns, for patients requiring hospitalisation and for patients requiring treatment in an ICU, tell a very different story -- that is, even if you're aged between 20 and 44, there's a 14% -- 20% chance you'll require hospital treatment, at the very least.
That is, to my mind, a not insignificant risk at the best of times, and this is not, of course, the best of times by a long way, since all these patients represent a demand for hospital care in addition to the regular demands placed on hospitals, at a time when the hospitals will be running with far fewer doctors, nurses, technicians and other medical staff than normal, as they fall ill from the disease.
And, of course, this similarly affects everyone who requires hospital treatment for something completely unrelated to Covid-19, since the increased pressure on hospital resources will affect them equally, with the added risk that, which in hospital, they'll themselves catch the disease, thus adding to their problems.
So it's not simply a matter of the grandparents selflessly sacrificing themselves so their children and grandchildren can avoid worst of the economic effects caused by a shut-down -- effects that are coming anyway, to a greater or lesser extent, because of the effects of the disease on customers and on the workforce -- but of everyone being forced, if the protective measures are lifted too soon (or not imposed at all), to cope with the devastating effects of the disease on anyone requiring hospital treatment for anything over the next few months.
I'm sure that this chap in Texas simply hasn't thought that through, any more than has Trump thought through -- or listened to anyone who's told him -- what US hospitals are going to look like come Easter.