Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is being critical of the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it "disappointing" in a new interview.
Zuckerberg spoke with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Thursday and said it's clear that the White House could be doing more to help combat COVID-19, which has infected around 3.7 million Americans and killed more than 141,000.
"At this point, it is clear that the trajectory in the U.S. is significantly worse than many other countries and that our government and this administration have been considerably less effective in handling this," Zuckerberg said, CNBC noted.
The 36-year-old Facebook founder added that Fauci and other scientists have advocated for Americans to wear masks and take other precautions, but that they're "being undermined."
"It's really disappointing that we still don't have adequate testing, that the credibility of our top scientists like yourself and the CDC are being undermined, and until recently parts of the administration were calling into question whether people should even follow basic best practices like wearing a mask," he said.
"As someone running a business, I believe the best way to improve both public health and economic opportunity in this country is to focus on beating this virus first."
Fauci is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, although according to a recent report he has been sidelined by the Trump administration.
Zuckerberg said he's "grateful for the leadership and dedication of Dr. Fauci, who has been working tirelessly under very difficult conditions to help us all navigate this."
According to Worldometer, the United States saw 73,388 new confirmed cases of the virus on Thursday, the most since the pandemic began earlier this year.
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