Melinda Gates slams Trump administration's handling of COVID-19, gives it 'D-minus'

Washington, May 8 () US philanthropist Melinda Gates has strongly criticised the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19, giving it a "D-minus" and stressed the need for more testing and contact tracing to curb the spread of the disease in America, the worst-hit nation by the pandemic.

According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the US so far has reported more than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and over 76,000 deaths.

Melinda, 55, who is the co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, expressed concern over the governors in 50 US states coming up with "different homegrown state solutions," to deal with the health crisis, instead of a coordinated response from the top, a report in the US media publication Politico said on Thursday.

She gave the administration a "D-minus" grade, citing a lack of a coordinated national response to combat the deadly virus, the report said.

Asserting that more money is required for testing and vaccine development in the US and across the world, she said, "You know, if we were doing the things that the exemplar countries are doing, like Germany, we would be testing."

"We would be testing, first, health care workers and then the most vulnerable, and you'd be doing contact tracing. And we would be able to start thinking about slowly, slowly reopening places in society in safe and healthy ways, but we have a lack of a coordinated effort. That's just the truth, across the United States," Melinda said during a POLITICO Women Rule interview.

She also slammed the US' lack of response on the international stage."What we're just beginning to see in Africa, you're going to see a lot more food insecurity there and a lot more health issues," she said.

"And when you have that there, it also bounces back into Europe, into the United States. So far, more is needed for the international response, which the U.S. really has been lacking in its response completely on the international front," she said.

Meanwhile, White House Deputy Press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement on Thursday that President Donald Trump had taken an "unprecedented approach" to working with governors across the US to get states the resources they need, the report said.

The Foundation, established by Bill Gates and Melinda, has committed USD 250 million for work on COVID-19 globally. RS AKJ RS