Trump says Google is making 'tremendous progress' on a coronavirus website.
Trump says Google is making 'tremendous progress' on a coronavirus website
When faced with illness, the president of the United States just turned to Google for help.
In a rambling Friday afternoon press conference, Donald Trump told the American people that their favorite search engine is here to save the day. Specifically, he insisted that Google is developing a website that will both help concerned individuals determine if they need a coronavirus test and where they can get one.
In other words, Trump's big pandemic plan essentially boils down to a fancier version of "Google your symptoms."
"I want to thank Google," Trump told the reporters gathered at the White House. "Google is helping to develop a website, it's gonna be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location."
The president continued on, insisting that "Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now," and that the company has "made tremendous progress."
We reached out to Google in an attempt to determine just what, exactly, Trump is talking about but received no immediate response. After the initial publication of this story, Verily, the life and sciences division of Alphabet, Google's parent company, issued a statement letting the world know that we shouldn't expect anything too soon.
"We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing," read the statement. "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."
Importantly, it is incredibly difficult to get a test in the U.S. at the moment. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported on sick people across the country people unable to access coronavirus tests.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, confirmed that dire reality.
"The idea of anybody getting [the test] easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we are not set up for that," he told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday. "Do I think we should be? Yes. But we are not."
Notably, online diagnosis tools like the one Trump seems to be describing have a long and rather unflattering history. A 2015 study exploring this very issue concluded that "Symptom checkers had deficits in both triage and diagnosis."
Trump doesn't seem like the type to read studies, however. But don’t worry, people. The President seems to have this all under control.
Update: Friday, March 13, 5:22 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include Verily's statement.
best president ever, shame taht he lives in USA, i would vote for him...
ReplyDeletetroll
DeleteTrump knows about the Chinese situation weeks, before he declared a state of emergency!
DeleteBecause of the stock market...
Saying it was a Democrat hoax.
trump can't spell either....
DeleteIf you want him, you can have him. Please...we insist!
Deletehe is as good as your spelling.
Delete..please take him!!!
Deleteyou can have him
DeleteBest at lying, promoting racism and sexually assaulting women?
ReplyDeleteHe sure is.
Man I love jokes
DeleteThese people are more scary than the virus on a Friday the 13th
ReplyDeleteDoes Google know they are doing this?
ReplyDeleteWhat the F is wrong with turning private industry to help in a situation such as a global pandemic????
ReplyDeletejust look at the current state of your national health system and you have the answer spelled out for you.
Deletenonsense.
DeleteDo you think they are doing this for free or for profit?
DeleteNothing wrong with using private industry. Except of course Trump is misrepresenting what “Verily” is and what the potential is right now for processing the (available ?) data to lead to faster detection/prevention of this specific virus.
DeleteAll Trump achieves with these statements is just more confusion.
what is "verily"? Do you mean "verify"?
Deletenothing, but he is about 2 months late starting, and so worried about his own reelection, that he rarely really consideres we Americans! Only worried that the numbers (if we actually tested) would reflect badly on him!
DeleteTwo plagues fighting in Augenhöhe.
ReplyDeleteStable genius
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. Just like we were going to have millions of tests a week ago.
ReplyDeleteMost Doctors turn to Google these days right in front of you in their consultation room, what's the difference?
ReplyDeletehell they probably looked at Google before you got there
Deletehe can use this one in the meantime https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/.../opsd.../index.html...
ReplyDeleteDonnie, wishing will not make it so.
ReplyDeleteTrump knows about the Chinese situation weeks, before he declared a state of emergency!
ReplyDeleteBecause of the stock market...
Saying it was a Democrat hoax.
Dear god....
ReplyDeletePlease take him , his all yours.and remember no refunds.
ReplyDeleteAnother weak sauce page I’m done with
ReplyDeleteThe cdc has one up already
ReplyDeleteWhy dus he keep trying to shake peoples hands
ReplyDeleteYou know the answer
DeleteHow about you clowns back the POTUS, Obama was a failure with H1N1 and didn't did anything until deaths were WAY above. Corona numbers
ReplyDeleteFormer Obama administration official Ron Klain, who managed the 2014 Ebola outbreak, disputed Trump’s assessment. “The Obama administration tested 1 million people for H1N1 in the first month after the first US diagnosed case,” Klain tweeted on Thursday. “The first US coronavirus case was 50+ days ago. And we haven’t event tested 10,000 people yet.”
DeletePlease don’t do drugs
after the first month. Not early
DeleteWe weren't lied to by the country where ebola came from. China stated this was nothing almost a month then admitted what it was. It's been 2 weeks. So in another 2weeks w will have tested more ppl then Ebola tests were done
DeleteI love taking with stupid ppl that have 0 medical knowledge, and if you do then you are clearly in the wrong field
Deleteand wasn't taking Ebola. Taking H1N1. Know you diseases
DeleteQ: What is ur cure for Coronavirus?
ReplyDeleteT: Build a website
It takes 1,700 engineers to build a website? It may have been easier and cheaper to update the CDC website with this information?....
ReplyDeleteI saw that also. It can’t be true.Probably just "fake news". ;)
DeleteDo you understand the traffic that website is going to get immediately after it's released?
DeleteI do. I work in tech. It doesn’t take 1,700 engineers to build a website.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteTo his supporters You're not the dumbest person on the planet, but you sure better hope he doesn't die soon
ReplyDeleteIn January 2025 it will be all over for you.
Deletesilly woman.
Deletehttps://globalnews.ca/news/6670445/canada-research-coronavirus-isolated/?utm_medium=Facebook&utm_source=GlobalNews
ReplyDelete