T E C H N O L O G Y
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Edited by
Jeff Muskus and
Molly SchuetzBloombergBusinessweek March 23, 2020The (Shaky) Plans to
Narrow the Testing Gap
When President Donald Trump finally addressed
the nation’s dire shortage of testing capabilities for
the coronavirus on March 13, he did what many
people do when they seek answers: He turned
to Google. But Trump’s announcement that the
Alphabet Inc. unit would be harnessing 1,700 engi-
neers to build a national website to screen people
for symptoms, and if necessary direct them to a
nearby testing site, was overly optimistic. Google
is rushing to rise to the occasion.
Across Silicon Valley, tech companies big and
small are stepping up to help in any way they can.
Amazon.com Inc. is prioritizing shipments of med-
ical supplies and household staples and plans to
hire 100,000 workers to help speed those orders.
Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube, and oth-
ers have pledged to work with one another and
alongside government agencies to stop the spread
of misinformation about the virus.
Tech billionaires are getting involved. Bill Gates,
Microsoft Corp.’s co-founder, stepped down from the
company’s board to focus fully on his philanthropy
and dedicate research to helping stop the virus’s
spread. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack
Ma, working with his philanthropic organizations,
has donated millions of dollars to support medi-
cal research efforts and disease prevention and has
prepared 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks
for the U.S. Smaller companies such as health-care
software providers Phreesia Inc. and Buoy Health
Inc. are helping medical providers triage potential
patients for testing and care.
Every day matters as authorities race to track
and slow the virus before it overwhelms the frag-
mented U.S. health-care system. States are try-
ing to limit the damage from the pathogen,
which experts believe could infect at least half
the country’s 329 million people, sharply reduce
economic and personal activity for weeks ormonths, and plunge the economy into recession.
There have already been problems with the
promised Google website. First, it wasn’t being
built by Google exactly, but by a sister company
under the Alphabet umbrella, health-care unit
Verily Life Sciences. On March 15, Vice President
Mike Pence and public health officials followed
up with more details. As they explained it, tests
were being rushed to sites across the country,
and at least 10 states were already running drive-
thru testing centers. Pence said Google’s website
would tell people whether they needed a test and
direct them on to one of dozens of new clinics
popping up in Target and Walmart parking lots
across the country.
Fornow,thewebsiteis availableonlyintheSan
Franciscoarea.Andonitsfirstfulldayofopera-
tion,it reachedcapacityandstoppedscheduling
new testing appointments. Only 20 people got
tested on Day 1, according to a person familiar with
the operation. “In these first few days of this pilot,
we expect appointment availability to be limited
as we stand up operations and that testing capac-
ity will increase in the days to come,” says Verily
spokeswoman Carolyn Wang.
The site faced immediate criticism from pri-
vacy advocates for its requirement to use a Google
account to log in. The company said the step is
necessary to keep in touch with patients and that
Verilywon’tsharethedatawithanyotherpartof
Alphabet.Separately,Googleplanstolauncha web-
sitededicatedtoinformationaboutthecoronavirus
soon. It also plans to use the site to direct people
to a Covid-19 screening tool being developed by the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the meantime, state and local health authori-
ties have established hotlines for people to call and
speak to a nurse who assesses whether each caller
qualifies for testing or not, and labs are increasing
their capabilities for running tests. Letting a com-
puter handle the testing triage over the internet
would be more efficient, but it’s hard to know yet if
the Verily system can even accurately decide who
should be tested. “What’s working against Google
succeeding is the absolutely impossible timeline and● Silicon Valley is working
on Covid-19 diagnostic tools.
There’s still a ways to go