White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Monday said officials do not believe a mini-resurgence of the coronavirus in some southern and western states constitutes a “second wave” of COVID-19.
“We do not believe this is a second wave,” Mr. Kudlow said on Fox News. “The president is absolutely disinclined to shut down the economy, as is the vice president. I think shutting down the economy could be worse for our health than not shutting it down.”
“In those localities where the guidelines are clearly wear masks, keep the social distancing and so forth — those things must be observed,” he said. “We must open the economy, but we must do it in a safe way.”
All 50 states are in the process of relaxing some of the previous coronavirus-related lockdown restrictions, but numbers have started creeping back up in states such as Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Mr. Kudlow said health experts are not seeing a “degree of alarm.”
“I don’t want to get cute here — I’m just saying as the reopening is occurring, this is like the passing of a very bad hurricane or a very bad snowstorm,” he said. “Hardship, heartbreak — yes. But when it passes, people return back to their work, and that is exactly what’s happening now.”
