Microsoft founder Bill Gates said it is not the right time to question China's response to the onset of the coronavirus.

China has been accused of trying to cover up and spread misinformation about its COVID-19 virus outbreak in a way that escalated the global pandemic. When asked to "respond to the charge" that China covered up the virus during a Sunday interview on CNN, Gates argued that it is not time to be questioning the country.

"China did a lot of things right at the beginning, like any country where a virus first shows up," he said. "They can look back and say where they missed some things. You know, some countries did respond very quickly and get their testing in place, and they avoided the incredible economic pain. It’s sad that even the U.S. that you would have expected to do this well did it particularly poorly. But it’s not time to talk about that."

He continued, "This is the time to take the great science we have, the fact we’re in this together, fixed testing, treatments, and get that vaccine, and minimize the trillions of dollars and many things you that you can’t even dimensionalize, in economic terms, that are awful about the situation we’re in. So, that’s a distraction. I think there’s a lot of incorrect and unfair things said, but it’s not even time for that discussion."

The World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations, has been criticized for its chummy relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, including its role in touting a Chinese study that claimed the coronavirus could not spread between humans. Because of this, President Trump cut U.S. aid to the organization, pending an investigation into its coronavirus response.

Gates found the president's move to be a mistake and defended the WHO's actions, claiming the only country the organization is biased toward is the United States.

"In the retrospective, we’ll see things that WHO could have done better, just like every actor in this whole picture. But the WHO has a strong connection with one country. That country is the United States," he said. "The number of CDC people who are there, people who used to work for the CDC, there’s no U.N. agency more connected to a country than WHO is to CDC."

Gates called the organization "phenomenal" and urged Americans to support its efforts.