4月30日，CNN与美国盖茨基金会联席主席比尔·盖茨视频连线。盖茨在采访中表示，美国进行大规模检测和追踪接触者的能力还没有达到几个月来一直与疫情作战的亚洲国家的水平。

“美国不会优先考虑为谁做检测，也不会确保你在24小时内得到答案。我们还没有经过授权的信息点或家庭测试。这仍然是一个管理问题。我们的检测数据难以进行比较，有钱的人可以检测很多次，穷人则可能得不到检测。”盖茨表示，“我们的系统没有能够为我们提供准确的优先检测排序。”

比尔·盖茨表示，美国和世界本可以在减轻新冠肺炎疫情影响方面做得更好。“如果正确利用1月和2月进行社区测试，就不必造成可怕的经济成本。”盖茨表示，“我们可以开发出足够多的工具，来阻止这种流行病的蔓延。”

Bill Gates has called the US's coronavirus testing data "bogus" because of testing inequality and slow turnaround.

The 67-year-old billionaire philanthropist discussed the US coronavirus response on Thursday night during CNN's global town hall with the hosts Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

The US is now testing about 200,000 people a day. Experts from Harvard University have suggested that to fully "remobilize the economy," the US needs to be testing 20 million people a day by midsummer.

Gates said that while the US was conducting a greater number of tests each day than it did earlier in the crisis, the latest testing didn't accurately reflect the country's population, particularly those in low-income areas.

"The United States does not prioritize who gets tested," he said. "And the United States does not make sure you get results in 24 hours."

Testing in the US remains a long and complicated task, and it can take several days before people are told whether they have tested positive or negative for COVID-19.

"If you get your test results within 24 hours so you can act on it, then let's count it," he said, adding that people were most infectious within the first three to four days after infection and might continue to interact with others and spread the virus until they have definitive results.

"What's the point of the test?" he said. "That's your period of greatest infectiousness."

Gates added that residents of low-income neighborhoods had lesser access to testing facilities and were not prioritized, despite indications that the virus has taken a disproportionate toll on marginalized communities.

"Our system fails to have the prioritization that would give us an accurate picture of what's going on," he said.

Gates has been warning about the risk of a pandemic for years, previously saying a global health crisis could wipe out 30 million people in less than a year. He told the Financial Times in April that COVID-19 was the "biggest event that people will experience in their entire lives" and that a viral outbreak similar to this one could happen "every 20 years or so."

His foundation, which has committed billions of dollars to the research of other infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, has already pledged over $250 million in response to COVID-19. According to the foundation, the funds are being used to help poor communities prepare for the virus and are helping accelerate the detection and containment of the virus.

Earlier this week, Gates said in an interview with the Financial Times that his charity was giving "total attention" to the coronavirus pandemic.

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