Google: Trump Just Lied About Us Building A Site

The Verge reports:

Google is not working with the US government in building a nationwide website to help people determine whether and how to get a novel coronavirus test, despite what President Donald Trump said in the course of issuing an emergency declaration for the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, a much smaller trial website made by another division of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is going up. It will only be able to direct people to testing facilities in the Bay Area.

More than an hour after Trump’s press conference, a Google communications Twitter account passed along the following statement from Verily, which is a different company inside the Alphabet corporate umbrella: We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing. Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.

Read the full article.

Update: contrary to Trump’s claim, Google is not building a nationwide coronavirus screening website https://t.co/3gNj7bghMk pic.twitter.com/xeyqnHHGD6

— The Verge (@verge) March 13, 2020

Donald Trump just stood at a podium in the Rose Garden and blatantly lied about Google developing a website that would screen people on whether or not they need a test for the coronavirus. We know this because moments later Google flatly denied it. This is our reality.

— Charlotte Clymer ?️‍? (@cmclymer) March 13, 2020

Statement from Verily: "We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing. Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.

— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) March 13, 2020