Melinda Gates and her husband have spent billions of dollars fighting diseases like polio, and in a Friday morning interview, she slammed the Trump administrationâs response to coronavirus, calling it âchaos.â
Asked if she is surprised that the U.S. was not âbetter prepared,â Gates said that she is surprised that âweâve wasted so much time. That we havenât had leadership at the national level to get out tests in the right way, protective gear in the right way, contact tracing in the right way.â
She went on to praise the way that Germany has handled the coronavirus (the country has suffered less than 8,000 deaths, reportedly). Gates noted that Germany is starting to âslowly re-open based on the science.â
She added, âThatâs the kind of leadership we should expect as citizens in this country and weâre not getting it. We havenât gotten it yet during his crisis and so youâre seeing whatâs happening and itâs chaos.â
Asked if she blames the Trump Administration, Gates responded, âIâm disappointed in what Iâve been seeing, yes.â
See her remarks below:
Gates has apparently decided that it is time to speak out about the Trump Administrationâs handling of the coronavirus. On Thursday, she gave an interview to Politico in which she praised Germanyâs response and said that there has been a âlack of a coordinated effortâ in the United States.
On Friday morning, she urged caution in reopening the country, saying that she believes âwe are still at the beginning stages of this pandemic, that we have seen the first part of it. To reopen we need to do far more testing and tracing and we need to be very careful and go very slowly as we reopen.â
Watch the video below:
In early March, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation teamed up with a few other charities to pledge to donate $125 million to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
