White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow Speaks Of COVID-19 In Past Tense, Says ‘There Is No 2nd Wave’ Coming

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow does not believe there will be a “second wave” of coronavirus cases.

“There is no second wave coming. It’s just hot spots,” the president’s chief economic adviser told CNBC on Monday. “They send in CDC teams, we’ve got the testing procedures, we’ve got the diagnostics, we’ve got the PPE. And so I really think it’s a pretty good situation.”

He added, “Actually, I think nationwide the positivity rate is still quite low, well under 10%.”

John Hopkins University & Medicine places the national positivity rate at 6% over a 7-day moving average, using data from the COVID-19 Tracking Project. However, the U.S. reported over 30,000 new cases on Friday and Saturday — the highest total since May 1, as states with low positivity rates such as New York offset the national rate.

Kudlow acknowledged the “hot spots,” such as Florida, Texas and Arizona but dismissed their potential to cause a national resurgence.

“There are some hot spots. We’re on it. We know how to deal with this stuff now, we’ve come a long way from last winter,” he said.

Kudlow had struck a similarly positive tone about the virus early on, telling CNBC on Feb. 25 that “we have contained this.” He added, “I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight.”

He later said he had “changed my view” on the containment of the virus within the U.S.

Kudlow told CNBC that President Donald Trump would continue to support the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic, noting proposals the president had supported including in another relief bill.

“Things the president has talked about publicly. He has talked about a payroll tax holiday for the workforce, he’s occasionally talked about capital gains tax relief. He wants to help out with some form of tax relief,” he said. “Restaurants, entertainment, athletic contests, things of that sort. We want to help out the tourism business, which has been hurt very badly. We also want to reward people who are reemploying, who are going back to work.”

Article by Katherine Huggins