Google really is developing a nationwide site dedicate to coronavirus
UPDATE:
Google announced it “is partnering with the U.S. government in developing a nationwide website.” Google’s latest announcement says the site is in addition to what Verily is doing, which is much more limited, in that only people in the San Francisco Bay area would be able to do risk assessments and get scheduled for testing.
HOWEVER:
The site is not what President Trump described. It is not a screening site which will direct people to nearby testing if appropriate. It is just a general info site. Trump conflated the Verily site (which is intended to do what he claims, but was originally only intended for health care workers in the SF area) and the upcoming Google site (which is nationwide, but is just general info and helpful tips).
Trump:
“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, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.”
“We’re partnering with the U.S. government in developing a website dedicated to COVID-19 education, prevention, and local resources nationwide. This includes best practices on prevention, links to authoritative information from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and helpful tips and tools from Google for individuals, teachers and businesses. We’ll be rolling out an initial version of the website late Monday, March 16, and we’ll continue to enhance and update it with more resources on an ongoing basis.”
Having noted that, I’ll add that the imaginary thing Trump described is a very good idea and somebody SHOULD develop it – respond to a questionaire, and it tells you the next step to take in your zip code. Once the groundwork is laid, it could be used for future diseases as well.
PREVIOUS:
“Google’s not making a nationwide coronavirus testing website. And the company had no idea the president would say it was.”
As Google’s sister company, Verily, understood it, the site was to be designed primarily for health care workers, not the general public, and would work at first only in the San Francisco area.
“People will be looking for a site that tells them where to get tested; unless they live in a handful of zip codes, it will be useless to them for the foreseeable future.”
Google is building a site, but it is not related to Trump’s claim. It is not a screening site which will direct people to nearby testing. It is just a general info site. Trump conflated the upcoming Verily site (which is intended to do what he claims, but was originally only intended for health care workers in the SF area) and the upcoming Google site (which is nationwide, but is just general info and helpful tips).
Trump:
“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, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.”
Google:
“We’re partnering with the U.S. government in developing a website dedicated to COVID-19 education, prevention, and local resources nationwide. This includes best practices on prevention, links to authoritative information from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and helpful tips and tools from Google for individuals, teachers and businesses. We’ll be rolling out an initial version of the website late Monday, March 16, and we’ll continue to enhance and update it with more resources on an ongoing basis.”
Having noted that, I’ll add that the thing Trump described is a very good idea and somebody SHOULD develop it – respond to a questionaire, and it tells you the next step to take in your zip code. Once the groundwork is laid, it could be used for future diseases as well.
Google debunks the claim that it is not building a national coronavirus website
Ooh, Ben Shapiro’s own website. Good cite, HHFi! Color me convinced, which I believe in this case is a rancid shade of spray tan.
The thing that always puzzles me is whether these guys are lying or just getting things confused. There are two web sites
* Verily (a Google sister company) is building a local SF site for screening and referral (and we hope it will expand its geographic reach over time).
* Google is building a national site for general info.
So Trump conflated them and said Google is building a national site for screening and referral.
If we were dealing with a normal human being, we would think, “OK, easy to explain, he must have just gotten them confused because nobody would tell a lie so easily checked and refuted.”
But you can’t ever make that kind of logical assumption with Trump because he simply doesn’t care whether his lies can be easily refuted. He just doubles down on them, assuming his followers will believe him over the contradictions. Case in point – just last year, he claimed his father was born in Germany. Why would anyone tell such an easily refuted lie about something that has already been clearly established? Who knows? That’s Trump.
I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say “It was easy to get those two things confused,” but it’s just as easy to believe that he knew they were two different things and lied.
What’s equally sad is that his apologists immediately try to cover up his errors and/or lies by saying he was right all along, e.g. Shapiro and others with the Google site, or Mnuchin with the cargo quote. Trump really installs a culture of fear about contradicting him, which is scary because he is so seldom right about anything, meaning that the intimidating culture forces the people around him to destroy their own credibility as they try to defend his.
There are three reasons to defend Trump:
(1) You’re evil
(2) You’re stupid
(3) You’re a spineless coward
(4) You make a lot of money doing so
That will come as news to 1,000 engineers
but the orange one said there were 1,000 engineers working on it.
Trumpy is making the legendary “Brownie” look good. Trump-Kushner-Miller not exactly Holland-Dozier-Holland when it comes to cranking out the hits huh?
As Kelly Bundy used to say, “It wobbles the mind”.
Forget Holand-Dozier-Holland, they’re not even Larry-Moe-Curly