Thread by @JeremyKonyndyk

Hey so if we're doing the thing of compiling lists of what senior leaders got wrong in the early months of COVID, the White House might also want to review some of these comments: washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…

Task Force member @larry_kudlow on Feb 25:

“We have contained this. I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight,”

He added that, while the outbreak is a “human tragedy,” it will likely not be an “economic tragedy.”
cnbc.com/2020/02/25/lar…

More from @larry_kudlow on June 22:

"there is no second wave coming"

He said that right at this point: axios.com/larry-kudlow-n…

But sure, you say, Kudlow is an econ guy, he's not running the response.

So let's look at @VP's track record. He made the same claim about no second wave, 6 days prior:

But when it comes to getting it badly wrong on COVID, there's one person in particular the White House might want to look into.

In January, on the day human-to-human spread was confirmed, he assured the public “It’s going to be just fine...We have it totally under control.”

On February 2, he said "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China."

On Feb 24 he maintained that “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA."

On February 26 he said that the 15 cases detected in the US would soon decline: “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”

In March he suggested COVID was less dangerous than flu: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on...there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”

He also repeatedly argued the virus would go away on its own:

Feb 28 - “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

March 10 - "It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away... [B]e calm. It's really working out."

He was still claiming this a few weeks ago as numbers spiked:

“I think we’re going to be very good with the coronavirus...I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of disappear, I hope.”

But it gets worse. He has said some really outlandish stuff about treatments.

He repeatedly touted (now-debunked) hydroxychloroquine, urging people to take a chance on it: "What do you have to lose? And a lot of people are saying that, and are taking it."

In late March he tweeted to millions of followers that "HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine."

(That's not actually the case)

After that was debunked, he had some thoughts about disinfectants:

"is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check”

I don't think I need to tell you who said all these things.

So look, @WhiteHouse, I think it's great that you care about retroactive accountability for officials' prior mistakes on Coronavirus. And all I'm saying is, Fauci's maybe not the main guy you should be worried about on that score.