
Contrary to Trump’s Claim, Google Isnt Building a Nationwide Coronavirus Website - donmcc
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/03/13/coronavirus-verily-trump
======
vondur
Statement from Verily: "We are developing a tool to help triage individuals
for Covid-19 testing. Verily is in the early stages of development, and
planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more
broadly over time. Verily Life Sciences, also known as Verily, is Alphabet
Inc.’s research organization devoted to the study of life sciences.

~~~
libraryatnight
While that's probably what he was thinking of, it's still a bizarre claim:

"Even that, though, was not the original plan. The Verge reported Friday
afternoon, Verily had intended the site for health care workers only. After
Trump unexpectedly publicized the effort, Verily decided it will let anyone
visit it, but can still only provide people with testing site information in
the San Francisco area."

[https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-donald-trump-
google-...](https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-donald-trump-google-
website/)

~~~
foogazi
From the article:

> In the memo, Pichai told employees that "a planning effort is underway" for
> Verily to "aid in the COVID-19 testing effort in the US."

So it was mentioned and being planned

------
BlackJack
Disclosure: Am a googler, know nothing about any of this other than public
press

I laughed out loud watching it live and reading the quote later:

"I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website. It’s going to
be very quickly done — unlike websites of the past...Google has 1,700
engineers working on this right now. They have made tremendous progress."

"1700 engineers!" :-)

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spking
Whether you like Trump or not, it comes across as petty to jump all over him
for a misstatement like this, even if it is hyperbolic. In all likelihood,
some aide probably mentioned that "Google has 1700 engineers building a
testing website", that stuck with him and he ran with it.

BFD, come on people. Of all the things to pick on at a time like this, we've
got a lot bigger fish to fry.

~~~
sidibe
In his last two coronavirus speeches he's given out just plain wrong
information somehow. They're wrong in ways its hard to believe they couldn't
get right and in ways it doesn't even seem helpful to him (unless he plans to
blame Google for not having something ready).

These aren't answers to live questions or anything. For some reason his
prepared statements are incorrect. (In the first one he talked about goods
from Europe being banned and corrected it after on Twitter)

~~~
dragonwriter
> In his last two coronavirus speeches he's given out just plain wrong
> information somehow.

To be fair, he does that in every speech, regardless of topic.

~~~
gshdg
And so... that means we should forgive him for it when it’s about a life or
death situation?

~~~
krapp
He was known to be a liar and a charlatan when he was elected, so we clearly
didn't care then. And we haven't cared enough over the last four years to
effectively remove him from office, so why pretend it matters now?

~~~
gshdg
Because now a LOT of people are going to die because of it.

And some of us have cared the whole time. Unfortunately it’s only the
geographic distribution of who cares that matters. Not just the count or
percentage.

------
flipcoder
[https://twitter.com/i/events/1238602623516733440](https://twitter.com/i/events/1238602623516733440)

Twitter is saying they are. (?)

------
berryjerry
This sounds like BS honestly. You know Trumps only conversations were with the
CEOs many of whom he asked to make commitments. Contrary to a "googler" who
posted in this thread. According to the NYTimes Alphabet CEO already sent a
memo to internal employees seeking volunteers for the project and it is
expected that 1700 people volunteered.

