National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow on Sunday safeguarded his claim in February that the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. was “contained,” informing CNN’s Jake Tapper his quote was based upon “the actual facts” at the time.

However federal public health authorities had actually been sounding the alarm about the possible danger of the infection prior to then.

“We have contained this,” Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s leading financial consultant, informed CNBC on Feb.25 “I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.”

“This is a human tragedy,” headded “That’s the worst part of this. The business side and the economic side ― I don’t think it’s going to be an economic tragedy at all.”

Obviously, Kudlow was incorrect about both the infection’s spread and its financial effect. Since Sunday, more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. are understood to have actually contracted the infection and a minimum of 67,000 have actually passed away. Approximately 30 million Americans have actually made an application for joblessness considering that mid-March amidst sweeping business closures.

Throughout an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Tapper asked Kudlow if there’s a detach in between Trump administration authorities who wish to resume the economy and medical professionals who caution doing so prematurely might be devastating. Tapper indicated Kudlow’s eyebrow-raising remarks from February.

Larry Kudlow speaks with his previous declaration that “we have contained” coronavirus: “My quote was at that time, there were very few cases. Then, as the virus spread exponentially in ways that virtually no one could have predicted, of course, we changed our mind” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/lzpMzRlxia

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) Might 3,2020

“My quote then was based on the actual facts, which at the time there were only 40 or 50 cases and it was contained,” Kudlow stated, later on including, “Yes, some doctors were more fearful. Other doctors had many different things to say. I don’t want to get in and play this game, who said what and when.”

“As the virus spread exponentially in ways that virtually no one could have predicted, of course we changed our mind,” he continued. “The sort of ankle-biting that’s going on in Washington is just incorrect.”

However the very same day Kudlow stated the coronavirus “contained” in the U.S., a top official at the Centers for Illness Control and Avoidance stated the opposite.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Breathing Illness, stated throughout a teleconference with press reporters that Americans need to anticipate “community spread” of the infection.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen,” Messonnier stated at the time. “We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare, in the expectation that this could be bad. … The disruption of daily life might be severe.”

The World Health Organization stated the coronavirus outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on Jan. 30.

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