Melinda Gates, who co-chairs a global charitable foundation with her husband Microsoft founder Bill Gates, on Tuesday pounded the Trump administration for its COVID-19 response.
In an interview that aired Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show, Gates, an advocate for women's rights around the world, also took President Donald Trump to task for the riot at the Capitol last Wednesday.
“I think we need to reckon with the fact that this president incited this mob,” she said. “That is not us as an American people. That is not us as a democracy. A protest is one thing, a mob is a different thing.”
But she zeroed in on the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 376,000 America, including the vaccine rollout.
“When you have a national emergency, it’s the federal government’s responsibility to make sure that there’s good coordination across all 50 states,” she said.
“The federal government needs to step up and have a coordinated response, just like they should have had for testing. That can be done, and you will start to see lots more vaccine getting out there, and for people to be able to take it.”
She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has to be “front and center” with guidelines for both the public as well as local health authorities.
But she said she was heartened by Americans’ response to vaccines that are now available to inoculate against the virus.
“Vaccine hesitancy has gone down,” she said, adding: “More of what we’re seeing is Americans saying ‘where can I get my vaccine.’”
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