Google's coronavirus testing site just launched and it's already overwhelmed
That was fast.
On Sunday, Verily, a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet, launched a new website hyped by Donald Trump. The goal? To schedule and make available coronavirus testing in two Bay Area counties. By Monday morning, however, the site had already blown past its capacity.
"Unfortunately, we are unable to schedule more appointments at this time," reads the site after users answer a few questions. "Appointments will continue to expand through this program as we scale capacity in the near future. Please check back later."
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This reality — that the Verily program is unable to handle a national or even Bay Area-wide influx of testing requests — is in stark contrast to the mostly baseless claims made by Donald Trump on Friday.
"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 claimed.
This, like so many things uttered by the president, turned out to be not exactly true.
This comes at time when the San Francisco Chronicle reports that six Bay Area counties, including San Francisco, will announce a "shelter in place" order Monday afternoon. As of March 15, the World Health Organization reported 153,517 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
"In the meantime, we recommend following these guidelines from the CDC," Verily's website suggests. "You can read more about the Baseline COVID-19 Program here."
The lack of coronavirus testing in the U.S. has reached scandal-level proportions, with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, suggesting as much on Thursday when speaking to the nation's efforts to prepare for the pandemic.
"It is a failing," he told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday. "I mean, let's admit it."
SEE ALSO: Trump announced Google's coronavirus test site. That was news to Google.
And while Verily jumping in to save the day may have sounded appealing to "private industry will save us" crowd, we unfortunately haven't witnessed anything close to that just yet.
