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

reuters.com

141–150 of 223 posts

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

#141

Google, with their enormous warchest of money could be providing free test kits for everyone, not developing some chinch web site locator that could be built in an afternoon by a single developer. They have clearly seized upon the moment for PR.

If they did what you suggest, the PR and goodwill would be enormous.

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

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...or that he's incompetent to the point of not being able to receive, process and relay information with any degree of reliability. Pick your poison I guess.

Last time I was reprimanded for making this point on these forums, but I'll say it again: If you think a guy with a 40+ year career in the cut-throat New York real estate world, then in in media and entertainment world, culminating in the Presidency of the USA, can't "process or transmit information", it might be you with the issue. You can mock "Art of the Deal" all you want, but it's not possible to be that "lucky"…

He hasn't worked in real estate for 30 years. Not since Trump Taj Mahal went down in flames. He does hotel management and branding. His other ventures have also all gone down in flames with a few resulting in fraud lawsuits.

All that being said, when in the last 5 years has he displayed more than a facile understanding of anything besides women's bodies? He again suggested this week that the US could refinance it's debt like a mortgage. He has previously declared that vaccines cause autism, climate change is a hoax, health insurance costs $12 a year, you need an ID to buy groceries. He's also said a website costs $2. A lot of people claim it's his persona and not his real self but I haven't seen any evidence at all to the contrary.

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

#143
post #43

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.

Because it's yet another detail that he's gotten wrong and shows that he's not paying attention. He made several incorrect statements about who is building the site, how many people are working on it, when it will be ready and who the target audience is. It's been a valve of mistakes this week that just show he isn't treating this seriously.

The best example of him being totally fucking clueless is when a reporter asked him if he/the WH staff will be tested after there's public evidence (a photo) of him next to the Bolsonaro aide who was later tested positive. His response, very confidently: "No, we have no symptoms whatsoever.".

Oh my fucking god... anyone who's paid 30 seconds attention to this virus knows that you may have it and not show any symptoms.

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

#144

Google, with their enormous warchest of money could be providing free test kits for everyone, not developing some chinch web site locator that could be built in an afternoon by a single developer. They have clearly seized upon the moment for PR.

Google, to my knowledge, has next to 0 pharma know how.

How, exactly, would they manufacture that many tests? If the idea is that they pay Roche to manufacture the tests, then we're right back to the problem we have right now. Presumably, Roche cannot manufacture them fast enough. I can tell you that right now a lot of hospitals are just praying that the promise of 500 000 being available "next week" comes to fruition. (And 500,000 is not that many, but it's a start.) Putting out even 10,000,000 is just beyond our capabilities right now. the 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 it would take to make it at least seem like enough for "everybody" is just fanciful thinking at the moment.

People and companies should volunteer to do things we actually have a chance in hell of accomplishing. Promising the impossible at a time like this, knowing full well you can't deliver, only deepens the crisis. Especially if people would be counting on you to deliver.

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

#145
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apologies, I thought you were genuinely curious.

Your answer was that you don't know through. You just assume that the information would be easy to obtain by calling to hospital. (Which is not a way to distribute information many people need simultaneously anyway, even if it worked). Multiple people who called ended up being sent (or told to call) from one place to another.They after series of calls ended up being told they cant get tested due to rules on who is be…

NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-testi...

tldr; call your provider or local public health

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

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of increased testing is to identify cases, know the true denominator, impose isolation and allow for contact tracing, all to reduce R0

Isn't it too late? We seem to have cases spread thoroughly across all states.

No, it is not too late. The number of likely cases is still low enough to make contact tracing worthwhile to slow the spread.

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

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this debate is analogous to the test kits being rejected from 3rd parties, if that’s what happened. We’re lost in bureaucratic technicalities. Verily was a division of Google X before Alphabet. It’s effectively Google Life Sciences minus the corporate advantages of the Alphabet structure. Maybe Kushner or the President wanted to encourage Google, or maybe a speechwriter over exaggerated it. Or maybe the P…

...or maybe trump heard something in a briefing and said what he thought he understood, instead of what he'd been told. And without, you know, coordinating or having the speech fact checked before delivering it to millions of people. The dude doesn't do process... See also, walking back the "no trade with Europe" thing a few days ago. He doesn't get a lot of slack (outside the right wing machine) because he's repeate…

It was Kushner. I live in CA and President Trump isn’t hated here as one would think from the media.

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verily is an Alphabet subsidiary. To the majority of Americans, 'Alphabet' is Google, because Alphabet is the successor organization to Google the company. All these ridiculous technicalities are nuts. No one cares that Alphabet decided to reorganize to maximize shareholder value. Alphabet is literally Google, and still trades under that ticker (GOOG). When people talk about Google the company, they mean Alphabet, an…

The important part is not google vs alphabet, it’s the fact that their site will only be available for the Bay Area.

initially.

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

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it too late? We seem to have cases spread thoroughly across all states.

No, it is not too late. The number of likely cases is still low enough to make contact tracing worthwhile to slow the spread.

Ok, I was under the mistaken impression that we likely have a lot of cases, just under reported due to lack of tests. Perhaps we really only have ~5000, I had thought it was >100000.
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