Former Secretary of State John Kerry has criticised President Donald Trump’s response to coronavirus as being a ‘denial of facts’ from those who ‘want to live in an alternative reality’.

The United States has been by far the worst-hit country during the COVID-19 pandemic with more than two million confirmed cases and a current death toll of 114,167.

And while Kerry, who left office along with Obama in 2017, points the finger at China’s secrecy as being one of the major reasons behind the pandemic not being controlled, he also insists Trump’s leadership and public persona also has to be held responsible.

Speaking via video call to people in London at the CogX conference, he said: "The odds were against us in the beginning because you had China, which is always somewhat secretive and which clearly began to manage the news in the beginning, and you had the United States with a leader who has no ability to tell the truth, or face it, or to lead.

"Any leader could have stood up within the G-20 and said ‘we’re the most developed nations, we have the biggest resources, we’re going to be the most impacted because of the way we live, therefore we’ve got to move’. And that didn’t happen.

"President Obama put together a playbook for any administration that followed us — it happened to be the Trump administration — and they threw it away, they ignored it.

"This was a denial of science. It was a denial of experts. It was a denial of facts and evidence by procrastinators, by deniers, by people who want to live with an alternative reality."

Kerry then extended his criticism of the President beyond  his handling of the pandemic.

"The United States has obviously been very hurt in the last few years with respect to that leadership, and it hasn’t been present," he added.

"The United States has reneged on its role as leader of the free world and today, frankly, there is no leader of the free world."

Trump will aim to secure a second term in office when voters head to the polls later this year on November 3.

After defeating Hillary Clinton four years ago, this time the 73-year-old will be facing Obama’s former right-hand man, Joe Biden.