Bill Gates says most coronavirus tests are a "complete waste" because results come too late

This is what it will look like next year, according to Bill Gates

(CNN) - Bill Gates criticized US coronavirus tests during an interview with CNBC, saying most of the tests are a "complete waste" because the results take too long to be revealed.

Gates, a former CEO and founder of Microsoft, believes that people need to get results back sooner so they can "change their behavior and not infect other people."

"The simplest thing, which has to do with so much madness, is that you should not compensate someone for taking a test that takes more than 48 hours to get the result," Gates said Tuesday.

"That test is a complete waste. And to all these numbers on how much we test, most of it is a complete waste, ”he added, calling it“ crazy ”for having to pay for test results that could take more than three days and up to a full week.

The United States was slow to implement tests across the country in the early stages of the pandemic, and experts say response times to results have hampered the country's ability to slow the spread of the virus.

Admiral Brett Giroir, deputy secretary of health for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, agrees with Gates that the tests should be improved.

"I started by saying that we will never be happy with the tests until we have 24-hour response times, and I would be happy with point-of-care tests everywhere. We are not there yet. We do what we can do for that, "Giroir told CNN's Jake Tapper on" State of the Union. "

Giroir noted that half of the tests conducted in the US are conducted in large commercial laboratories with an average response time for test results of 4.27 days, and said that "we need to continually improve our ecosystem."

Giroir assured that Quest and LabCorp have been authorized to carry out group tests, which will help improve efficiency. Cities where there are outbreaks will also add more evidence.

The United States administered 733,243 tests on July 28, which is nearly triple the number of tests that were administered near the end of April, according to data from the Covid Monitoring Project.

Gates has donated hundreds of millions of dollars for the treatment and research of covid-19 vaccines through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

CNN's Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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