Infamous prognosticator and Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, appeared on Fox & Friends this morning where he attempted to assuage the fears of Wall Street.
Although Kudlow was as wrong as anyone possibly could be about the first wave of the coronavirus infections, Kudlow says there is no second wave.
“There is no emergency. There is no second wave. I don’t know where that got started on Wall Street,” Kudlow told “Fox & Friends.”
Although Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, acknowledged he is “not the health expert," he said he had spoken with the administration’s top public health officials “at some length” Thursday evening. “They are saying there is no second spike. Let me repeat that. There is no second spike,” he said.
So that's that, right?
Maybe not.
The Associated Press reports that inside the White House, the coronavirus task force has been discussing their plans to blame the second wave on Mexico.
The notion was discussed at some length during a meeting of the administration’s coronavirus task force in the White House Situation Room Thursday that focused, in part, on identifying commonalities between new outbreaks, according to two administration officials familiar with the discussions. [...]
In addition to its theory about Mexico, members of the White House task force were also exploring other potential causes for the recent uptick in numbers, noting that circumstances likely differ by location. Delays in test reporting and the fact that some infected people take multiple tests in order to get an all-clear to return to work are among the other theories that are being explored, but would not account for the increase in hospitalizations seen in some states.
Mexico does have over 130,000 confirmed cases of the virus, but the United States has over 2 million now so it would be more fair and plausible to say that Mexico's infections came from the States.
All sarcasm and self-owns aside, Kudlow may be right from a certain point of view.
There can't be a second wave if we never exited the first wave. At some point in the last month, Americans decided it's acceptable if up to 1,000 people continue to die every day. Our death rate has more or less stabilized at an elevated level so it may be accurate to say the first wave never ended.
In any event, the White House is going to need someone to blame for whatever happens next and whoever that is it won't be Trump.