Billionaire Bill Gates has stated that his foundation, the world’s wealthiest charity, will be giving its “total attention” to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Gates also defended China’s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus, calling discussion of the communist government’s misdeeds a “distraction.”

The Financial Times reports that Bill Gates’ charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has decided to give its “total attention” to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic even at the risk that its other public health work will suffer as a result. In an interview from his home in Seattle, Gates stated that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has an endowment of more than $40 billion will focus its resources on the pandemic which he believes could cost the global economy “tens of trillions of dollars.”

The foundation has already given $250 million to help with the Wuhan coronavirus response but its commitment of manpower and expertise is of greater benefit, said Gates. “We’ve taken an organization that was focused on HIV and malaria and polio eradication, and almost entirely shifted it to work on this,” he said. “This has the foundation’s total attention. Even our non-health related work, like higher education and K-12 [schools], is completely switched around to look at how you facilitate online learning.”

Gates used the interview to spread doom and gloom on the economy: “You’re going to have economies with greatly reduced activity levels for years. So-called ‘animal spirits’ are going to be hard to find, other than government largesse. We’re definitely in the tens [of trillions], which blows the mind. If you’d asked me six months ago, I wouldn’t have thought that was possible.”

Gates also appeared in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and attacked president Trump for blaming China, where the virus originated in the province of Wuhan, calling it a “distraction.” Gates stated: “There’s a lot of incorrect and unfair things said. But it’s not even time for that discussion.” According to Gates, “China did a lot of things right at the beginning.” Footage of his comments can be seen below:

Chinese state propagandists promoting @BillGates defense of the Chinese government. https://t.co/EvqXJuwvfw — Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) April 26, 2020

Gates also stated that he does not believe President Trump will cut funding to the World Health Organization, stating: “I think he will do deep analysis and decide that they probably should get more money, not less money.”

Gates also criticized those that believe that China may not be entirely honest about the pandemic, stating: “Sure, they should be open, but what is it that people are saying they’re not being open about? Every country has a lot you can criticize.” Gates continued: “Most people, whenever something new comes along, they take their classic criticisms of that country and just repeat them. But here we should get concrete. I don’t see any deep insights that are missing in terms of the origin of the disease that somebody is holding something back.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com