Coronavirus: Trump's claims that Google is developing a virus testing website leaves tech giant stumped
President Trump said on Friday, March 13, that Google is on board to develop a new tool, a website, to determine coronavirus and disseminate information about testing for the infection. However, his announcement was yet again received with confusion as his version of the details differed to those of Google.
"I want to thank Google," he said at The Rose Garden news conference when he also declared a state of national emergency.
"Google is helping to develop a website, it’s going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past," he added subtly undermining the launch of Obama's healthcare.gov in 2013. According to POTUS, the website will seek "to determine whether a test is warranted" and will "facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location".
Trump went on to explain that 1,700 engineers at Google are currently focused on building this website, and have so far made tremendous progress. "Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus," he asserted. A flowchart held up by Dr. Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator for the Whitehouse, backed his statement and it illustrated how users using the site would go through the screening process for risk factors.
Vice President Mike Pence, said more information about the availability of the site would be provided on the evening of March 15.
The new tool is being developed by Verily, the life sciences division of Google's parent company Alphabet, established in 2015. The site aims to redirect individuals that pose a high risk of contracting the virus to testing or screening sites.
Half-an-hour after the President's statement was broadcasted, the tech giant took to Twitter to make an official statement: "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. We appreciate the support of government officials and industry partners and thank the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort."
Later, Carolyn Wang, a spokesperson for the company revealed that Verily plans to make the website available by March 16, but it will be limited to the Bay Area. If the preliminary check goes well, then it will be readied for a nation-wide release, although a date hasn't been fixed as of yet.
Initially, the company intended to create a "triage website" for health-care workers, said Wang, but had to reconsider releasing it to the general public after Trump's statement.
Dr. Birx elaborated on the site's mechanism, which will start with a survey and ask users about their symptoms and risk factors. If it decides that they should get a test, it will inform them of the nearest drive-through testing center available. It will also include information about COVID-19, the symptoms, and precautionary measures.
Verily's Emily Friedman said that the company was working with testing companies Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp on the site. The tool will be built on Verily’s Project Baseline based on health data gathered from volunteers.
“We were intending to start with the highest at-risk populations, which includes health care workers, but were not planning only for them,” said Friedman to the Washington Post. “Our aspiration is for the triage tool to be used much more broadly.”
The Trump Administration previously downplayed the spread of the virus, despite the increase in confirmed cases in the U.S. It also delayed testing and provision of test kits, until the seriousness of the situation kicked in.
In his statement at the news conference on Friday, Trump said he is working with companies like Roche to give the public access to hundreds of thousands of other COVID-19 tests, by next week at the latest. He also announced that $50B in federal funding will go towards state operation centers, drive-through testing and other measures.