OPINION:
Bill Gates is the smartest guy in the room, nay, on the planet, and he wants everybody, from the White House to the medical community to John Q. Citizen in Anytown, U.S.A., to know it.
How else to explain his feigned incredulity on CNN of America’s coronavirus test process to that of other nations? Let’s remember: Gates is a computer guy. He’s not actually a medical expert.
This is what he said when asked by CNN host Fareed Zakaria to explain America’s handling of the pandemic, as Mediaite noted: “I wouldn’t have predicted that we would do so poorly.”
And this: “[There was a] variety of missteps by the U.S. and then the political atmosphere [that] meant that we didn’t get our testing going,” and as a result, America is “paying a pretty dramatic price.”
And this: “It’s mind-blowing … you can’t get the federal government to improve the testing, because they just want to say how great it is — you know, I’ve said to them, look, have a CDC website that prioritizes who gets tested. That’s trivial to do. They won’t pay attention to that.”
That dang President Donald Trump — he acts like he’s president or something. The gall!
“No other country has [this] testing insanity because they won’t talk about fixing it because they’re — you know, [this administration] think[s] they need to just keep acting like they’ve done a competent job,” Gates said.
Of course, that’s not true. The whole “Trump’s failed America on coronavirus testing” is just a left-wing talking point. The idea the world has succeeded where the White House has faltered has been pushed by anti-Trumpers for months — but it’s dishonest.
Financial Times in March wrote of the global response to COVID-19, “Coronavirus testing shortages: what’s the problem? Unprepared governments are overwhelmed as the system suffers from multiple symptoms. Global systems for rushing out tests are buckling under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving patients who fear they are suffering from the virus constantly struggling to get diagnosed.”
Fast-forward to July and it’s more of the same.
The journal Nature wrote, “Researchers are scrambling to find other ways to diagnose the coronavirus and churn out millions of tests a week — a key step in returning to normality.” The writer wasn’t talking about America.
“The timing couldn’t have been worse. In March, just as Thailand’s coronavirus outbreak began to ramp up, three hospitals in Bangkok announced that thy had suspended testing for the virus because they had run out of reagents. Thai researchers rushed to help the country’s clinical laboratories meet the demand,” the piece went on to say.
Guess who stepped in and offered a solution to Thailand?
America. America’s researchers. An American lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that sent starter kits.
“The kits are quite cheap and work well,” said a Bangkok systems biologist quoted by Nature.
What was it Gates said again?
“No other country has the testing insanity,” he said.
America’s “paying a pretty dramatic price” for this administration’s “missteps,” he said.
The feds “won’t pay attention to [my]” recommendations, he said.
That — from the former Microsoft chief who never could remove all the kinks from his company’s software, and who turned full-time philanthropist to push vaccines around the world.
He’s not a doctor.
He’s not even a politician.
And if he didn’t detest Trump as much as he does, there’s no way he’d be on so many television screens right now, fawned over and favored by the talking heads as some sort of coronavirus expert deserving of the world’s ear.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.