Former television host and current Donald Trump appointee to the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to discuss the White House’s response to the ongoing coronavirus crises. Martha Raddatz questioned him about quotes from just a month ago, in which he called the virus “contained” and downplayed an economic tragedy, asking why people should believe him now when he got it so wrong before.
“At the time I made that statement, the facts were ‘contained,’” he said, reiterating the Trump talking point of “we didn’t know.”
Of course, former CDC director Tom Friedan was sounding the alarm as early as January 22, writing “the new virus is likely to continue spreading and be recognized more, and in more countries, in the coming days and weeks. We need to learn — and fast — about how it spreads and how often it causes severe illness so we can try to prevent its spread.”
Two days later, Trump tweeted that China was working hard to contain the virus, implying that their effort was enough to suffice and that “it will all work out well.”
On February 6th, Li Wenliang a doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital who had been criticized by the Chinese government for bypassing state media to disclose the severity of the outbreak, died from Covid-19.
These (and a slew of other) early warning signs would likely seem like enough “facts” to engender concern from the world’s most dominant economic and military power. But with this administration, it’s hard to say.