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Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

reuters.com

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Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#81

Post by tathougies »

newtoday wrote: post #56

So, I'm gonna have to go to Walmart to get tested? Wtf? I should be able to go to my local hospital right now, but there's no tests, and no one will be wearing PPE when I walk in there. Fuck this website. Exactly where, in each US state does one go for testing, right now? Any sources on this? Edit: I may sound rash, but what I read is Google: it's only in SF Bay, Trump: there will be a website, and drive through test…

Because Walmart already has the infrastructure to (a) set up drive-through testing sites, (b) employees to perform the tests, and (c) the distribution network to get this test to the majority of America very quickly. Your local hospital, not being part of a larger chain or system, does not.

These tests are all drive through, that is why you don't need PPE to go in, because you don't need to go in.

I don't understand the HN hivemind that American companies wanting to help out Americans is a bad thing.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#82

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

ma2rten wrote: post #65
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the 1700 engineers bit?

They sent a company-wide email looking for volunteers to help build the site. 1,700 engineers responded. This obviously doesn't mean that 1,700 people are going to work on the site.

Thanks. Oof. Well, at least it wasn't _completely_ out of thin air =/

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#83

Post by throwaway894345 »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #74
dmix wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see how someone could get the impression he said it was coming Sunday evening but watching the interview from start to finish it's clear that wasn't a direct response to the question like some people thought it was. Edit: Re-reading the transcript it looks like they only announced the announcement of plans for Sunday? >> Mike Pence: For Americans looking on, by this Sunday evening, we'll be able to give speci…

> I could see how someone could get the impression he said it was coming Sunday evening The media (and many, many commenters here) were foaming at the mouth for another ORANGE MAN BAD story. It's amusing to watch all the frantic spinning taking place in this comments section to avoid walking back the ORANGE MAN BAD narrative from this morning. You were wrong, guys. Just admit it. It won't kill you. I am no particular…

(I didn’t downvote you). I actually think this is the one time the media’s criticism isn’t hyperbolic (Trump always merits criticism, but somehow the media takes it to ridiculous extremes). I don’t think Trump is the frothing racist he’s made out to be (although I’m sure he has all sorts of subconscious biases), but he is an idiot narcissist with a national crisis on his hands and he seems to be handling it miserably.

Why didn’t we have testing in place sooner? Even if you pin the blame on the CDC, why weren’t there remediation plans announced publicly/immediately? Why is there still no word about how we will manage the crisis when it hits? What of ordering more ventilators and other necessary equipment or scaling up hospital capacity? What of containment measures to slow the spread? How are we going to ramp up testing (I’m grateful for the Roche test deal but who knows if Trump was even aware of or involved in it)? This isn’t leadership even by the crudest standard, and people will die as a consequence.

To his credit, he’s working with “Google” to make the website and that’s not nothing, but there’s still a lot to be done and he gives no impression of proactivity or even merely reacting to what is already happening in other countries. I don’t want to be in the middle of the crisis hearing him shift the blame onto the Obama administration when there’s plenty he could have done or plenty he could be doing to mitigate.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#84

Post by mindslight »

tathougies wrote: post #79
mindslight wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Details matter. And getting some details wrong is fine if you accept criticism with the goal of converging on being correct. Trump rejects the framework of communicating in correct facts, relying on emotional platitudes instead. Running with your example, it's as if Trump is boasting that he has cured cancer, because he knows someone who invested in a company that made a marginal improvement to treatment for one type…

> Trump rejects the framework of communicating in correct facts, relying on emotional platitudes instead. Yes, he uses words that people understands. No non-tech, non-finance person would know what alphabet is. Regular americans do not know that Google, Inc (a publicly traded company) decided to change its name to Alphabet Inc (still traded under GOOG though, because apparently this snafu is good enough for the NYSE)…

I was addressing the general pattern of why "these same people would literally be upset".

In service of converging on the nuanced truth, I do agree that the specific of conflating Google and associated entities isn't a particularly big deal.

The suspect bit here is the claim of "1700 people working on it", which doesn't add up no matter how you try to slice it. It obviously doesn't take that many people to make a website. It doesn't even take that many people to scale a website, given the modern options available. I think the most plausible explanation is trying to claim entire departments responsible for the infrastructure that will be used, but they're still not "working" on it. Regardless of how the figure could possibly be justified, it doesn't have any purpose in the speech besides conveying a feeling of big/strong/powerful - ie an emotional platitude.

I do understand why Trump won. I personally have been quite tolerant of Trump, chalking most of the outrage up to differences in taste, and trying to explain this to others. That is, tolerant up until now when we're three weeks behind with our society's coronavirus response, and he's still spouting ineffectual bullshit.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#85

Post by mullingitover »

The timing of that press conference was really suspicious, and makes me think this is still all about the stock market and not a public health strategy.

It was scheduled to start at 3:00 PM, but they stalled until 3:30 PM to actually start it. 30 minutes before the stock market closed for the week. The longer they talked, the more the market went up. The market loved them. Everyone's confident that they are delivering competent leadership. Time to buy! Or so it seemed.

There were a huge number of short sellers in the stock market this week, and I think the white house knew that the short positions would be expiring at the end of the day on Friday. By bringing out this dog and pony show with captains of industry and making these big promises, I think they hoped to take credit for the inevitable upswing as short sellers brought up the market by closing their positions.

By doing this, the administration is trying to look like they have the power to restore confidence in the stock market, when in reality the market is still badly battered, and they are absolutely culpable.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#86

Post by lawrenceyan »

cavisne wrote: post #72
vikinghckr wrote: post #3

Found it strange that some parts of media decided to focus on the semantics of Google and Verily being different subsidiaries of Alphabet. This is an almost meaningless detail.

Tech media knows the average person doesn’t understand the whole Alphabet/Google thing (and lets be honest in 2020 no one really understands it as the founders have left and Sundar is CEO of both ). So they make a deliberate decision to induce fear and anger in their audience, for clicks. They hate you!

Hate is a strong word.

I think the media understands that in our present day world, they live or die by the number of clicks they can get. Journalistic integrity in that kind of environment is understandably difficult to ensure.

People will no longer pay for a subscription to the news in the numbers that used to be feasible in the past. This is a fact, and with it comes a set of a consequences we as a society have to come to terms with. Instead of pointing fingers, I think it's more important that we try and focus on finding solutions to the problem.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#87

Post by newtoday »

tathougies wrote: post #81
newtoday wrote: post #56

So, I'm gonna have to go to Walmart to get tested? Wtf? I should be able to go to my local hospital right now, but there's no tests, and no one will be wearing PPE when I walk in there. Fuck this website. Exactly where, in each US state does one go for testing, right now? Any sources on this? Edit: I may sound rash, but what I read is Google: it's only in SF Bay, Trump: there will be a website, and drive through test…

Because Walmart already has the infrastructure to (a) set up drive-through testing sites, (b) employees to perform the tests, and (c) the distribution network to get this test to the majority of America very quickly. Your local hospital, not being part of a larger chain or system, does not. These tests are all drive through, that is why you don't need PPE to go in, because you don't need to go in. I don't understand…

That's a really good answer. Thanks. I agree, but it just makes me pinch myself, check my pulse, and wonder if I'm in an alternate universe when the world pandemic of this age involves me going to Walmart instead of to a hospital.

Second part of the question. Where do I go get tested in each state, right now?

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#88

Post by ajross »

tryptophan wrote: post #30
Jommi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point out to me the statement where Google denies working on the web tool?

A quick read of the article confirms that a google subsidiary IS MAKING A WEBSITE. Trump got all the details wrong as usual, but the main idea is true. That article just seems like its fishing for "trump bad" material.

Under the circumstances, shouldn't we demanding that the executive branch do a bit more than getting the main idea correct? Isn't it newsworthy when the president, in probably the single most important press event of his administration, got "all the details wrong as usual"?

Isn't that... "bad"? So why is it "fishing" to report "Trump bad" in this context?

This is bad. It's BAD. We have a clearly incompetent administration trying to coordinate the response to the worse disease outbreak in 102 years. And shouldn't the media be able to say that when it's true?

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#89

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

newtoday wrote: post #71
newtoday wrote: post #56

So, I'm gonna have to go to Walmart to get tested? Wtf? I should be able to go to my local hospital right now, but there's no tests, and no one will be wearing PPE when I walk in there. Fuck this website. Exactly where, in each US state does one go for testing, right now? Any sources on this? Edit: I may sound rash, but what I read is Google: it's only in SF Bay, Trump: there will be a website, and drive through test…

A few downvotes on this so far, but no replies. No answers! I apologise for reaching out to the community. I love HN and respect the guidelines whole heartidly, but I was actually hoping for a reply.

Possibly because its common sense no country is really prepared for anything like that, doesn't matter the overall medical situation, and private companies who have infrastructure already help out if they can everywhere in the world right now.

Re: Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing

#90

Post by newtoday »

tathougies wrote: post #81
newtoday wrote: post #56

So, I'm gonna have to go to Walmart to get tested? Wtf? I should be able to go to my local hospital right now, but there's no tests, and no one will be wearing PPE when I walk in there. Fuck this website. Exactly where, in each US state does one go for testing, right now? Any sources on this? Edit: I may sound rash, but what I read is Google: it's only in SF Bay, Trump: there will be a website, and drive through test…

Because Walmart already has the infrastructure to (a) set up drive-through testing sites, (b) employees to perform the tests, and (c) the distribution network to get this test to the majority of America very quickly. Your local hospital, not being part of a larger chain or system, does not. These tests are all drive through, that is why you don't need PPE to go in, because you don't need to go in. I don't understand…

"I don't understand the HN hivemind that American companies wanting to help out Americans is a bad thing. "

In no way do I feel that way. But, I personally don't need anything from large corporate America bullshitting about the seriousness of what lay ahead. Reactions, particularly from grociers and retailers just in the last two days have been surprisingly good though.

Still, I don't need an article or website giving me a status update, I need to know where I can get tested.

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