Fox News Presses Larry Kudlow On COVID-19 Spikes After He Declared No Second Wave

Mary Papenfuss
·3 min read

Fox News hosts on Monday grilled White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on spikes in COVID-19 cases in the nation just three days after he declared: “There is no second wave.”

Kudlow — the man who declared in February that COVID-19 was “contained ... pretty close to airtight” before more than 115,000 Americans died of the disease — conceded there might still be “bumps” in the COVID-19 crisis, even though they appear to be trends.

“Friday morning, you said on Fox News Channel — and I remember it so clearly — you said no second wave, and you said it again, ‘This is not a second wave,’” Sandra Smith told Kudlow. Yet spikes in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are sweeping parts of the U.S., most notably in the South and West.

Kudlow responded: “We’re going to have these concerns for a while.” But he said that after his conversations with “our health experts,” his understanding is that “these are relatively small bumps.” He added: “They’re there. I’m not denying it.” Kudlow said it’s “something we have to get used to.”

He didn’t name the health experts — and indicated some of the “bumps” may be attributable to increased testing.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned last week at a virtual conference held by BIO, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, that the pandemic is far from over after it “devastated the whole world” in just four months.

“Where is it going to end? We’re still at the beginning of really understanding,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fox News host Ed Henry also challenged Kudlow on his statement that the economy would not be shut down again. “God forbid the health experts go to the president and say, ‘Look, we’re fearful this is going the wrong way and there could be tens of thousands of more people dying,’” said Henry. “You’re saying the president still will not shut down the economy?” he asked Kudlow.

“The president is absolutely disinclined to shut down the economy,” Kudlow responded.

Kudlow said flatly last Friday on “Fox & Friends”: “There is no second wave. I don’t know where that got started on Wall Street.”

Check out Kudlow’s latest Fox News interview in the video up top.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.