Alphabet, Walmart join U.S. effort to speed up coronavirus testing • Hacker News Board

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

#191

Post by Proven » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

TSiege wrote: post #166

76543210 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I didn't pay taxes my mortgage would be paid off, I could quit/work from home for a decade. How much abundance would we have without the federal government?

If we didn't pay taxes we wouldn't have schools, roads, or the internet, and maybe even your mortgage (along with countless other things). So imagine where you life would be without it.

I don't have a poor (or biased) imagination.

I imagine we'd much have better private schools, better and cheaper private toll roads, etc.

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

#192

Post by KirinDave » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

cultus wrote: post #172

76543210 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I didn't pay taxes my mortgage would be paid off, I could quit/work from home for a decade. How much abundance would we have without the federal government?

This is certainly a difficult time to be a libertarian.

You know, it's easy to dunk on these folks. Especially since the American Libertarian party has allowed itself to be infested with a lot of silly and even racist people. But globally this crisis does show that the "decentralize and democratize" sides of the political compass have a point.

In the US, central authority substantially impeded pandemic response. Both out of apathy (substantially defunding and deprioritizing support in 2018) and selfishly, with key CDC officials acting on behalf of the executive to suppress key information and decline assistant from other countries (and the WHO) who have better testing infrastructure.

We only discovered the Seattle COVID-19 outbreak because a (heroic, imo) doctor decided to destroy red tape that was blocking her from doing important work [0]. The US has been refusing to evaluate South Korea's current treatment method [1] which is clearly saving lives.

More in my camp, the notion of enforcing borders is hurting us more than protecting us in a lot of cases. E.g., border control chokepoints in airports are creating infection hotzones that are going to do much more harm than good. Great job loading everyone with a nascent infection and then sending them out into society with no possibility of tracing where they got it, customs! Way to do exactly the opposite of whatyou wanted to do! [2]

Even more ridiculous is how currently US IP law, a longtime foil, is being used to hold up giving Chinese citizens access to potentially very effective antiviral drugs because Gliead is afraid China will undercut them. [3] Sure the world is on the brink of a global economic collapse and in the worst case a few percentage points of the global population could die and the majority of people living could see their lifespans shortened due to complicatons, but yeah let's worry about that quarterly stock price and IP law.

Libertarianism in America is rife with contradictions and racist buffoons, but right now I think there is a lot of positive things to be said about decentrialized and anti-authoritarian societies. It's certainly hard to imagine them doing worse than our current government.

[0]: https://reason.com/2020/03/11/how-government-red-tape-stymie...

[1]: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/12/South-Kor...

[2]: https://twitter.com/StevenDialFox4/status/123899199815520665...

[3]: https://sfist.com/2020/02/06/bay-area-based-gilead-donates-e...

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

#193

Post by 76543210 » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 5:07 PM UTC

TSiege wrote: post #166

76543210 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I didn't pay taxes my mortgage would be paid off, I could quit/work from home for a decade. How much abundance would we have without the federal government?

If we didn't pay taxes we wouldn't have schools, roads, or the internet, and maybe even your mortgage (along with countless other things). So imagine where you life would be without it.

None of those are paid by the federal government.

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

#194

Post by fragmede » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 5:25 PM UTC

bluk wrote: post #33

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.

The key quote in the Verge article is: "Carolyn Wang, communications lead for Verily, told The Verge that the “triage website” was initially only going to be made available to health care workers instead of the general public. Now that it has been announced the way it was, however, anybody will be able to visit it, she said. But the tool will only be able to direct people to “pilot sites” for testing in the Bay Area,…

What you said is all true, which is what makes the focus on Alphabet/Google mixup so out of touch. There are so many other problems, that focusing on a mistake about the details of Google's corporate structure seems like focusing on the alignment of the deck-chairs on the Titanic.

I will very readily admit that I've not made a huge distinction between Alphabet, Google, and Verily. And for that matter Waymo, the Google self-driving car project. Or is that the Alphabet self-driving car project. I have no idea, without checking Wikipedia, if Project Loon (Internet-via-weather-balloon) is a Project of Google or an Alphabet subsidiary, or some other legal shenanigans.

There are so many other things going wrong right now that I am severely disappointed that the Verge wasted any words talking about the distinction between Alphabet and Google, no matter how much I may, or may not, like the individual that confused the two.

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

#195

Post by jpster » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

aazaa wrote: post #190

> “I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website, it’s gonna be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location,” Trump said. It's important to watch the press conference on this topic for context. The website is supposed the be the front line in the CDC's revamped testing effort. There are still far to…

This was my interpretation, too. If you watched the presser, it was clearly about a website into which you could enter your symptoms and then be directed to a testing site if needed. Nationwide. Verily’s first set of subsequent statements refuted this.

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

#196

Post by jpster » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 5:49 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #107

tathougies wrote: post #80

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.

Exactly. For weeks people have been clamoring to get tested, including outside of the Bay Area. But whatever they’re launching will not help provide this in the short-term. That is the point.

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

#197

Post by jpster » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #165

jjeaff wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I could make a list of the people least deserving of an apology, Trump would be near the top.

No, no not apologizing to Trump. Apologizing to HN readers for spreading the fake news even after Google themselves came out with a statement saying that they are in fact doing what Trump announced.

No. Did you actually watch the press conference? What Trump announced is what Verily is building. But he implied it would be nationwide. It’s not.

> Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information.

This sounds like it’s in addition to what Verily is building. So I doubt it’s the diagnostic and get to testing site function that Verily’s working on.

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

#198

Post by jpster » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #121

mullingitover wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not supporting or opposing short selling, just pointing out that: - It was happening - The White House probably was aware of the extent of it - They wanted to get credit for the rise in stocks when their actions actually didn't have any effect (or perhaps even had a negative effect)

Seriously what do you want the White House to do? Run around like chickens with their head cut off? I am so damn disappointed at this site often enough to just delete the book mark. The partisan first, TDS, or call it what you will, on display here, makes me wonder if I landed on reddit/politics instead of a tech site. The government's job is to assure calm, it that requires a little white lie or a bit of misdirectio…

I’m curious as to your definition of a little white lie, and I wonder how durable you think this calm is. People clamoring for tests nationwide don’t need provable lies told to them. They need confidence that the people in charge know what they’re doing and they need to know how they can access the tests. These lies are hurting, not helping.

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

#199

Post by allannienhuis » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

servusMachina wrote: post #188

allannienhuis wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not a difference that matters in this context.

Seems like it doesn't matter simply due to your political bias.

You can invert that statement and it has just as much validity: "Seems like it matters simply due to your political bias"

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

#200

Post by tootie » Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

aguyfromnb wrote: post #132

jmull wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you watch the address Wednesday night? And how many critical points had to be corrected afterward? That’s fully incompetent transmition of information.

> Did you watch the address Wednesday night? And how many critical points had to be corrected afterward? Yes. Sounds like the system is working as intended. Do you understand the pace at which things are happening right now (much of it the administration's own fault)? It isn't "just" a virus; they are also concerned about the economy and an election and an opposition (and media) who will blow every mis-step out of pr…

Donald "Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated" Trump. The guy who said Russia would never invade Ukraine. Who called his soon-to-be convicted national security advisor in the middle of the night to ask if it was better to have a strong dollar or a weak dollar. The guy who promised a peace deal with North Korea after tearing up a durable deal with Iran. A guy who said tax cuts pay for themselves and the deficit will go down. Remember 2.5 years of infrastructure weeks?

Seriously, what topic has he shown even basic fluency? He is exceedingly capable of expressing his impatience with imperfect solutions of his predecessors and adversaries. He has less than zero capacity to even as well as any of them.