On March 13, US President Trump declared a national emergency in the United States and announced that Google had invested 1,700 engineers to build a website related to virus detection. According to Trump, the website will cover the United States, people can use the website to know if they need to be tested, and help people quickly find nearby places where they can be tested.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately aroused doubts. The Internet said that this was just Trump’s one-sided remarks, and Google was not doing a so-called national website.
“Trump announced a website that doesn’t exist.”
On the same day after Trump’s speech at the press conference, foreign media CNN issued an article saying that Google denied the imminent launch of a nationwide website related to new coronary pneumonia testing, while Verily, another company owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, was making a website. But nothing like what Trump described. It was just a small trial site and was in early development as a tool to triage potential coronavirus patients, serving only the Bay of California.
After the launch, Google Communications representative Verily tweeted:
“We are developing a tool to help triage individuals with Covid-19 testing. Verily is currently working on early development and has plans for testing in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding the service to other regions over time. We thank government officials and industry partners for their support, and thanks to Google engineers who volunteered for this work.”
Foreign media quickly noticed Trump’s mention of “soon” and Google’s “over time”, as well as keywords such as “covering the whole country” and “serving only the Gulf of California.”
And Verely, once a subsidiary of Google, is now a subsidiary of Alphabet, just like Google. Verly actually has only about 1,000 employees.
Trump: It’s the media who lied, not me!
However, 2 days later (March 15), Google Communications issued a new statement:
“Google is working with the U.S. government to develop a national website with information on COVID-19 symptoms, risks, and testing. We are united and will continue to work with the U.S. government to inform citizens about COVID-19 to curb the spread of COVID-19. Maintain community health.”
Trump tweeted the statement and said: “The media that published false information did not contact Google (on this matter), but they said that Google’s website is fake, even in the current epidemic, these media are not telling the truth. words.” In addition, Trump expressed his gratitude to Google.
And on Sunday, at another press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Trump took out a statement sent by Google, once again confirming that it was the media, not him, who lied. “The head of Google is an amazing gentleman.”
Hours after the launch, a website made by Google sister company Verily launched a coronavirus risk screening tool that directs residents of two Northern California counties to testing centers.
In a blog post about the project, Verely said the coronavirus triage site will work through the company’s existing Project Baseline site and will go live on Monday, March 16.
Foreign media VOX said that Google does have a plan to deal with the coronavirus, but it is not what the president said. The “1700” Trump claimed in his speech was actually referring to Google’s internal combined volunteer list statistics before Trump’s speech, the day before the conference (Thursday), Google CEO Sundar Pichai asked. Asked if employees could do something about COVID-19 testing efforts, Google engineers filled out a form volunteering to help Verely develop its coronavirus triage site over the next “days and weeks.” But at the time, the site plan was aimed at only those more at risk of contracting the new coronavirus (such as healthcare workers).
It appears that Friday’s notice from Trump changed those plans. Foreign media The Verge and Wire reported that Google was caught off guard by Trump’s announcement, and Verly had originally intended to launch the tool only for healthcare workers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
When Vice President Mike Pence was asked at a briefing on Sunday (March 15) about the Google site and when it would launch, he responded, “We’ll have a site going live sometime early next week.”
Google: The site is currently under construction…
Regardless of whether Google was originally building the website Trump said, judging from Google’s updated statement on Twitter, the website is currently under construction…
A website is just a tool, not a panacea, but a website that spreads information about COVID-19 and guides people to get tested must be meaningful in slowing the spread of the disease. On the other hand, judging from this incident, the Trump administration is obviously in disarray in the face of the sudden outbreak, to the point of looking for “life-saving straws” everywhere. Trump has previously accused Google of manipulating the search results of its search pages and portraying its image negatively, but this time, Trump praised Google for nothing more than putting money in his face.
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