Thread: Google sister-company's coronavirus website rolls out to confusion

Google sister-company's coronavirus website rolls out to confusion

By Brian Fung, CNN Business
Updated 2:21 PM ET, Mon March 16, 2020

Washington, DC (CNN Business)Confusion greeted the launch of a coronavirus testing website built by Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet and sister company to Google.

The site launched Sunday night and is initially intended for people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The website was supposed to direct Californians who live in the wider San Francisco area to one of two locations in the state where they could be tested for the novel coronavirus, if they met certain criteria established in an online questionnaire.

At first, users who reported they were suffering from symptoms such as "severe cough, shortness of breath, fever or other conceding symptoms" were advised they were not eligible for testing. If you went to the tool and answered "yes" to the symptoms question, the tool told you "based on your symptoms, in-person COVID-19 testing through this program is not the right fit."

When asked why those with symptoms were being advised not to receive testing, Verily spokeswoman Carolyn Wang told CNN that the tool is meant for those who are unsure if they are infected.

Google's description of its coronavirus site stops short of what President Trump described

"The initial question is meant to ensure that anyone who is seriously ill does not come to our sites because they are not prepared to provide medical attention," she said in a statement. "We are early in this pilot and are going to be learning more that will help us refine this COVID-19 risk screening and testing."

Verily later updated the questionnaire to ask if users are experiencing "severe symptoms," and to emphasize that the tool is not for those with such symptoms.

The tool still advises those who report severe symptoms to "seek medical attention" and refers those visitors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.

However, in testing the website, CNN also discovered that answering the questionnaire correctly — meaning responding in ways that met the site's criteria for coronavirus testing — led to another error message. The message said: "Unfortunately, we are unable to schedule more appointments at this time," suggesting that there aren't enough testing appointments available even for those who warrant testing.

The Verily website launch follows a series of announcements from the Trump administration in recent days that Google was developing a large scale testing website. On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence promised that "for Americans looking on ... we'll be able to give specific guidance on when the website will be available, you can go to the website, as the President said, you type in your symptoms and be given direction whether or not a test is indicated."

Verily's site is distinct from the nationwide website Google is building to address the coronavirus. Google is developing an educational site to provide information about the coronavirus, but the company's announcement stopped short of describing it as a website connecting users to test locations.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/tech/...out/index.html

CA.
Drive-thru coronavirus swabs start at 2 Orange County medical centers

Is anyone surprised that this new privacy invading Google website collects up your personal medial information yet fails to actually help anyone?

I'm not.

Google should stay out of the medical business as they have proven time and time again that anyone to the right of Stalin in America can't trust them.

Verily’s coronavirus screening pilot website is already at capacity

No word on when more people can join

By Dieter Bohn@backlon Mar 16, 2020, 2:27pm EDT


After less than 24 hours, the website Google’s sister company Verily launched to help people find coronavirus tests isn’t able to schedule more appointments. It was positioned as a small pilot for California’s Bay Area to begin with, instead of the expansive site the White House characterized it as, and that positioning has turned out to be very true.

The site was at capacity on Monday morning, Wired’s Lauren Goode reported. We asked Verily how many people it allowed in, why capacity was reached, and when it might open up again for more. Verily declined to comment on those questions. Instead, it sent this statement:

All appointments require a call-back confirmation to schedule an appointment. If someone were to fill out the questionnaire overnight, they would go into a queue to be called the next day should they qualify. In these first few days of this pilot, we expect appointment availability to be limited as we stand up operations and that testing capacity will increase in the days to come.

The new coronavirus is spreading through the US, and several states have made emergency declarations. The World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic.

Here are the basics:
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS

Google plans on launching its own website later today, though Google’s website is not expected to include screening questions or the ability to find a drive-thru testing facility. Instead, as described by CEO Sundar Pichai, it will be mostly informational, directing people to trustworthy sources. He did promise that Google would “continue to enhance and update it with more resources on an ongoing basis.”

The company has expressed hope that Verily’s site could expand over time, but it’s too early to say what that timeline might be.

For those looking for a single, national resource for finding out whether and how to get tested, the Verily website currently isn’t it and neither is Google’s proposed site. Whether by Google, Verily, or somebody else, it’s unclear if such a site is being built despite the administration’s claims.

For now, the best way to find accurate information on whether you should get tested and how to get access to a test is to check with your doctor or a local hospital.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/16/2...bsite-capacity

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