by Andrew Trunsky
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Monday that there “is no second wave” of the novel coronavirus coming, as states across the country reported rapid increases in new virus cases.
Kudlow touted the progress that the country has made in combating the COVID-19 virus during an interview with CNBC.
“There are some hot spots. We’re on it,” Kudlow said. “We know how to deal with this stuff now, we’ve come a long way since last winter and there is no second wave coming.”
His comments resembled those made by Vice President Mike Pence, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal June 16 titled, “There Isn’t A Coronavirus ‘Second Wave.’”
“All in all, I think it’s a pretty good situation, and of course reopening the economy is the key to economic growth, and we’ve had a whole bunch of green shoots that are showing recovery probably coming on faster than a lot of people thought,” Kudlow said.
Kudlow blamed the increasing case count on additional testing, a similar argument to what President Donald Trump said during his Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Kudlow’s statements stand in contrast with those made administration official Peter Navarro, who said on CNN Sunday that the administration was preparing for the possibility of a second wave as cases skyrocket in states across the country.
Public health experts in the CDC and the Trump administration have said that the rise in cases, which have been primarily in states throughout the south, but added cannot alone be attributed to increases in testing, they said that rising cases were at least in part due to states’ reopening while still in the first wave, The Hill reported.
Kudlow’s comments are the latest that appear inconsistent with some members of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force. Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned of a growing “anti-science bias” that was driving Americans to not take proper precautions and contributing to the country’s climbing case count as a result.
“One of the problems we face in the United States is that unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science bias that people are — for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not understandable — they just don’t believe science and they don’t believe authority,” Fauci said June 18 on a Department of Health and Human Services podcast.
“And that’s unfortunate because, you know, science is truth,” Fauci said.
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Andrew Trunsky is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
