'A big mistake': Kudlow says another shutdown to curb surging coronavirus cases could threaten a V-shaped economic recovery

Another shutdown would cause additional harm to businesses and people forced to stay home, and "the great V recovery might give way," he said.
Right now, Kudlow doesn't see any signs that the economic recovery is slowing, but said "one cannot rule out there's a lot of scenarios here."
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Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump's chief economic adviser, said that it would be a mistake to shut down the US economy again even as coronavirus cases surge to record highs.

"It'd really be a big mistake to take a step like another shutdown," Kudlow said during a Wednesday interview with CNBC . "It would do more harm than good."

Another shutdown would cause additional harm to businesses and people forced to stay home, and "the great V recovery might give way," he said.

On Tuesday, the US reported 60,000 new coronavirus cases, another record single-day spike that brought the total confirmed case count in the country to 3 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Kudlow said that despite uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic, "virtually every piece of data" points to a V-shaped economic recovery. Still, he said that going forward, "one cannot rule out there's a lot of scenarios here."

Most of the country is "doing rather well," said Kudlow, adding that there are some places that are in trouble as a rise in COVID-19 cases leads to rollbacks or pauses to reopening plans.

He also denied that the Trump administration is downplaying the threat of the virus to Americans. "No one's denied we've had a huge jump in cases in certain hot spots," he said, pointing to states such as Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, and California, which have seen cases rise.

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