Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, March eighteen. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
Speaker 1: coronavirus update. How are the major tech companies responding to
Speaker 1: the global pandemic. President Trump jumped the gun and announcing
Speaker 1: a website that Google is working on to help people
Speaker 1: get information and schedule tests for COVID nineteen. The site
Speaker 1: is now up, but only in limited capacity in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area. Also, could Amazon play a role by delivering
Speaker 1: testing kids. Kara Swisher, host of the Pivot and Recode
Speaker 1: Decode podcasts, join us for more on what big tech
Speaker 1: can do. Thanks for joining us, Kara. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about more on coronavirus. Obviously, it's really all that
Speaker 1: anybody is talking about right now. There's a travel restrictions,
Speaker 1: their social distancing going on. The President just put out
Speaker 1: new guidelines to help stop the spread. People shouldn't gather
Speaker 1: in groups of more than ten and avoid bars and restaurants.
Speaker 1: That's happening all across the country now. But we wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about big tech and and these tech companies
Speaker 1: and their involvement in this, trying to help out with this,
Speaker 1: most notably Google, has just launched a new site through
Speaker 1: one of their other companies, UH for Corona to help
Speaker 1: people with coronavirus testing. I've seen things about how Amazon
Speaker 1: could also help throughout all of this. So can tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about how tech companies are helping
Speaker 1: or can be helping during this time right now? Sure?
Speaker 1: I mean, well, the controversy were Google is because President
Speaker 1: Trump pre announced something that didn't exist really and Google
Speaker 1: had been in early talks with helping out. And so
Speaker 1: what Google did is they moved quickly because they've got
Speaker 1: lots of people to help them make things um and
Speaker 1: created a website in order to allow people to find
Speaker 1: a place to to to go over their symptoms and
Speaker 1: then find a place to get a test. UM. That's
Speaker 1: a site that's con become overwhelmed because it's only for
Speaker 1: a small part of California, nor California, and it's not
Speaker 1: been scaled out to the west of the the country by
Speaker 1: any means. So don't imagine that regular that everybody can
Speaker 1: get acts. Eventually, that would be great. They'd be very
Speaker 1: good to do. That can eventually be great if you
Speaker 1: could you could go on a website and make an
Speaker 1: appointment and get a test instantly. It just went up
Speaker 1: on Sunday and then today earlier this morning they had
Speaker 1: a you know, uh this message that says, hey, we're
Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately we're unable to schedule more appointments at
Speaker 1: this time. So really just unable to handle the big
Speaker 1: influx of testing your quest. Because everybody wants to know
Speaker 1: if they have it so they can help self quarantine,
Speaker 1: take care of themselves, all that stuff. Let's just say
Speaker 1: everyone should assume they have it because it's going to
Speaker 1: get to most of the population on much of the population,
Speaker 1: and so I think people should behave as if they
Speaker 1: have it, whether they feel sick or not, and assume
Speaker 1: that they have been around someone who has. These things
Speaker 1: are exponential for people who love check. That's a big
Speaker 1: word for tech is and they and this virus scales
Speaker 1: the way other things scale, and so it's critically important
Speaker 1: to remember that another interesting for tech to do, besides
Speaker 1: doing these websites and getting people to it is getting
Speaker 1: people write information without having misinformation and disinformation out there
Speaker 1: about this UM. It's really critical that Facebook and Twitter
Speaker 1: and YouTube and all the platforms where people traffic and
Speaker 1: social media um really do get it right as time
Speaker 1: and not mess around as they have in politics where
Speaker 1: they've sort of uh, you know, dropped the ball several times.
Speaker 1: And to get make sure bad information is completely off
Speaker 1: these sites immediately, um and to not allow bad information
Speaker 1: me that's another way they can really help. And to
Speaker 1: get out good information and get where people go to
Speaker 1: know what to do and various things. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of what's great about social media and
Speaker 1: and the internet is general is people get information instantly
Speaker 1: and can react instantly. So that's terrific and if it's
Speaker 1: done right, it can be a great thing. You know,
Speaker 1: that's wonderful. And then lastly delivery, you know, home delivery
Speaker 1: and things like that. And the one thing to keep
Speaker 1: in mind is a lot of the people who work
Speaker 1: for a lot of these delivery services or ubers or
Speaker 1: things like that are gig economy workers and they are
Speaker 1: they are unprotected in times they have to work um
Speaker 1: and so they don't get paid time often. So it's
Speaker 1: really important for the tech companies it's really lean in
Speaker 1: and take care of the people who who um, who
Speaker 1: have been working for them, uh you know, in some
Speaker 1: cases not with enough wages and certainly not enough health
Speaker 1: care protection yeah, and that's going to be an increasing
Speaker 1: need specifically because of these guidelines and state officials saying
Speaker 1: that bars and restaurants need to be closed, they say
Speaker 1: they can be open for takeout only or delivery things
Speaker 1: like that. So I mean, I'm I'm certain that a
Speaker 1: lot of people are gonna be staying at home and
Speaker 1: use these apps a lot more even to get their
Speaker 1: delivery of their food and other groceries, different things like that. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and it's it's important to keep in mind, you know, again,
Speaker 1: besides these issues around cleanliness and washing your hands everything else,
Speaker 1: is that there are people out there doing work for
Speaker 1: you that you're you're at home or self quarantining. You know,
Speaker 1: the's people who bringing you food and they're putting their
Speaker 1: lives and so it's really important that we protect them
Speaker 1: and everyone else and also to stop the spread. Um,
Speaker 1: there's going to be some movement, you know, no matter what,
Speaker 1: in order to get food, in order to you know,
Speaker 1: live you know, an analog life. The problem is here
Speaker 1: is digital doesn't solve everything. Life is analog in the end,
Speaker 1: and this virus is analog, and so it's important to
Speaker 1: use digital means to help you guide your way through it,
Speaker 1: but understand that most of the solutions here have to
Speaker 1: do with you know, living living in the real world,
Speaker 1: and it's important to to think about that and get
Speaker 1: the best information you can. So we talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about Google UH and and the new site that
Speaker 1: they're getting implemented. Hopefully they can ramp that of Obviously
Speaker 1: they're pushing verified information from the CDC or the World
Speaker 1: Health Organization on their sites and other UH sites that
Speaker 1: they own. UM one of the questions I had was
Speaker 1: about Amazon because we increasingly we've been talking about it.
Speaker 1: We live in this world where we get all this
Speaker 1: delivery and all these crazy things like that. UM, So
Speaker 1: what role can Amazon play because they're going to be
Speaker 1: an overtime as well, where you know, their workers are
Speaker 1: going to have to be working at fulfillment centers all that,
Speaker 1: But what other types of things can this company, one
Speaker 1: of the hugest companies in the world right now, what
Speaker 1: can they do to help Well, we've posited that they
Speaker 1: could be a great way to get delivery of tests
Speaker 1: or or other other stuff we need UH as this
Speaker 1: crisis progresses and mitigation strategies. I mean, at some point
Speaker 1: in the future, Amazon is going to get very heavy
Speaker 1: into healthcare, and in a situation like this, you could
Speaker 1: have imagined them being a great place to deliver testing
Speaker 1: or deliver like lots of things. Um. You know what
Speaker 1: the problem with the Google site is where nowhere near
Speaker 1: the testing levels we need to get to. So they
Speaker 1: can't make more appointments if there are not enough tests,
Speaker 1: if you're not personnel to to give those tests. Um.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's one area that can be in.
Speaker 1: Another thing is they own AWS, which is a massive
Speaker 1: cloud computing platform really how and heavy uses of AI,
Speaker 1: both Google, Microsoft, Amazon. You know, we're going to need
Speaker 1: to use AI and other highvy computing means to understand
Speaker 1: the patterns of these viruses and to understand where they're
Speaker 1: going next and to make projections and things like that.
Speaker 1: So it's really important that tech works hand in hand
Speaker 1: with government in that regard to Yeah, and as private
Speaker 1: companies are stepping up their tests and helping out with
Speaker 1: that front, we're going to get more results and you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna need all this tech to kind of really
Speaker 1: map that out. So that's going to be really important,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of what people have been saying. You know,
Speaker 1: once the testing starts ramping up. We're going to see
Speaker 1: a huge influx of confirmed cases and then it goes
Speaker 1: into into you know, the rest not testing. It's not
Speaker 1: just testing because this vaccine is not going to be
Speaker 1: here for a little while, and that's what happens when
Speaker 1: we have to make new vaccines, and it could also
Speaker 1: morphed and change everything else. And so really what we've
Speaker 1: got to do is figure out mitigation strategies in terms
Speaker 1: of making more innovative ways to uh to to do
Speaker 1: lots of things like there hasn't been a lot of
Speaker 1: innovation in ventil latter ventilators. I mean, they do work
Speaker 1: a certain way, but you know, it's really important for
Speaker 1: tech to really lean in heavily on lots of scanning.
Speaker 1: You know, they're doing some really interesting things around scanning
Speaker 1: in China to do it more quickly, scanning of chests
Speaker 1: to see who's really serious and who could just be
Speaker 1: at home and be quietly, quietly get better from this um.
Speaker 1: And so it's really important that that tech really leans
Speaker 1: into innovation and the healthcare field so that we have
Speaker 1: better diagnostic tools going forward, because this is going to
Speaker 1: be a diagnostic game and a mitigation game for a
Speaker 1: very long time and getting most of the population through hopefully,
Speaker 1: which is just a bet, you know, just feeling badly
Speaker 1: and not getting to the levels of stars, which is
Speaker 1: these acute respiratory syndromes which are so dangerous for anyone
Speaker 1: who gets them, no matter what age they have. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you're older where you have you know underlying issues,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a harder time. But anyone, even a
Speaker 1: young person, That's the last thing I'd say is young people,
Speaker 1: you think that is all you know, you don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about it. If you get this, You're not
Speaker 1: going to have a great life the rest of your
Speaker 1: lives either. Um, this could be very damaging to your
Speaker 1: lungs if if you have a serious about with with
Speaker 1: this disease, and therefore it's important for everybody, including as citizens,
Speaker 1: to help other citizens to make sure that you don't
Speaker 1: you're not the one making other people sick at the
Speaker 1: same time not making yourself sick. Kara Swisher, host of
Speaker 1: the Pivot and Recode Decode podcasts, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for joining me. Thanks a lot. This has been your
Speaker 1: daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. For today's big news stories,
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