How Is Big Tech Responding to the Coronavirus Outbreak

testing kids. Kara Swisher, host of the Pivot and Recode Decode podcasts, join us for more on what big tech can do. Thanks for joining us, Kara. We're gonna be talking about more on coronavirus. Obviously, it's really all that anybody is talking about right now. There's a travel restrictions, their social distancing going on. The President just put out new guidelines to help stop the spread. People shouldn't gather in groups of more than ten and avoid bars and restaurants.

That's happening all across the country now. But we wanted to talk about big tech and and these tech companies and their involvement in this, trying to help out with this, most notably Google, has just launched a new site through one of their other companies, UH for Corona to help people with coronavirus testing. I've seen things about how Amazon could also help throughout all of this. So can tell us a little bit about how tech companies are helping

or can be helping during this time right now? Sure? I mean, well, the controversy were Google is because President Trump pre announced something that didn't exist really and Google had been in early talks with helping out. And so what Google did is they moved quickly because they've got lots of people to help them make things um and created a website in order to allow people to find a place to to to go over their symptoms and

then find a place to get a test. UM. That's a site that's con become overwhelmed because it's only for a small part of California, nor California, and it's not been scaled out to the west of the the country by any means. So don't imagine that regular that everybody can get acts. Eventually, that would be great. They'd be very good to do. That can eventually be great if you could you could go on a website and make an

appointment and get a test instantly. It just went up on Sunday and then today earlier this morning they had a you know, uh this message that says, hey, we're you know, unfortunately we're unable to schedule more appointments at this time. So really just unable to handle the big influx of testing your quest. Because everybody wants to know if they have it so they can help self quarantine,

take care of themselves, all that stuff. Let's just say everyone should assume they have it because it's going to get to most of the population on much of the population, and so I think people should behave as if they have it, whether they feel sick or not, and assume that they have been around someone who has. These things

are exponential for people who love check. That's a big word for tech is and they and this virus scales the way other things scale, and so it's critically important to remember that another interesting for tech to do, besides doing these websites and getting people to it is getting people write information without having misinformation and disinformation out there

about this UM. It's really critical that Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and all the platforms where people traffic and social media um really do get it right as time and not mess around as they have in politics where they've sort of uh, you know, dropped the ball several times. And to get make sure bad information is completely off these sites immediately, um and to not allow bad information me that's another way they can really help. And to get out good information and get where people go to

know what to do and various things. I mean, I think a lot of what's great about social media and and the internet is general is people get information instantly and can react instantly. So that's terrific and if it's done right, it can be a great thing. You know, that's wonderful. And then lastly delivery, you know, home delivery

and things like that. And the one thing to keep in mind is a lot of the people who work for a lot of these delivery services or ubers or things like that are gig economy workers and they are they are unprotected in times they have to work um

and so they don't get paid time often. So it's really important for the tech companies it's really lean in and take care of the people who who um, who have been working for them, uh you know, in some cases not with enough wages and certainly not enough health care protection yeah, and that's going to be an increasing need specifically because of these guidelines and state officials saying that bars and restaurants need to be closed, they say they can be open for takeout only or delivery things

like that. So I mean, I'm I'm certain that a lot of people are gonna be staying at home and use these apps a lot more even to get their delivery of their food and other groceries, different things like that. Absolutely, and it's it's important to keep in mind, you know, again, besides these issues around cleanliness and washing your hands everything else, is that there are people out there doing work for

you that you're you're at home or self quarantining. You know, the's people who bringing you food and they're putting their lives and so it's really important that we protect them and everyone else and also to stop the spread. Um, there's going to be some movement, you know, no matter what, in order to get food, in order to you know, live you know, an analog life. The problem is here

is digital doesn't solve everything. Life is analog in the end, and this virus is analog, and so it's important to use digital means to help you guide your way through it, but understand that most of the solutions here have to do with you know, living living in the real world, and it's important to to think about that and get the best information you can. So we talked a little bit about Google UH and and the new site that

they're getting implemented. Hopefully they can ramp that of Obviously they're pushing verified information from the CDC or the World Health Organization on their sites and other UH sites that they own. UM one of the questions I had was about Amazon because we increasingly we've been talking about it. We live in this world where we get all this

delivery and all these crazy things like that. UM, So what role can Amazon play because they're going to be an overtime as well, where you know, their workers are going to have to be working at fulfillment centers all that, But what other types of things can this company, one of the hugest companies in the world right now, what can they do to help Well, we've posited that they could be a great way to get delivery of tests or or other other stuff we need UH as this

crisis progresses and mitigation strategies. I mean, at some point in the future, Amazon is going to get very heavy into healthcare, and in a situation like this, you could have imagined them being a great place to deliver testing or deliver like lots of things. Um. You know what the problem with the Google site is where nowhere near the testing levels we need to get to. So they can't make more appointments if there are not enough tests,

if you're not personnel to to give those tests. Um. And so that's that's one area that can be in. Another thing is they own AWS, which is a massive cloud computing platform really how and heavy uses of AI, both Google, Microsoft, Amazon. You know, we're going to need to use AI and other highvy computing means to understand the patterns of these viruses and to understand where they're going next and to make projections and things like that.

So it's really important that tech works hand in hand with government in that regard to Yeah, and as private companies are stepping up their tests and helping out with that front, we're going to get more results and you know, we're gonna need all this tech to kind of really map that out. So that's going to be really important, and that's kind of what people have been saying. You know, once the testing starts ramping up. We're going to see a huge influx of confirmed cases and then it goes

into into you know, the rest not testing. It's not just testing because this vaccine is not going to be here for a little while, and that's what happens when we have to make new vaccines, and it could also morphed and change everything else. And so really what we've got to do is figure out mitigation strategies in terms of making more innovative ways to uh to to do lots of things like there hasn't been a lot of

innovation in ventil latter ventilators. I mean, they do work a certain way, but you know, it's really important for tech to really lean in heavily on lots of scanning. You know, they're doing some really interesting things around scanning in China to do it more quickly, scanning of chests to see who's really serious and who could just be at home and be quietly, quietly get better from this um.

And so it's really important that that tech really leans into innovation and the healthcare field so that we have better diagnostic tools going forward, because this is going to be a diagnostic game and a mitigation game for a very long time and getting most of the population through hopefully, which is just a bet, you know, just feeling badly and not getting to the levels of stars, which is these acute respiratory syndromes which are so dangerous for anyone

who gets them, no matter what age they have. Obviously, if you're older where you have you know underlying issues, you're gonna have a harder time. But anyone, even a young person, That's the last thing I'd say is young people, you think that is all you know, you don't have to worry about it. If you get this, You're not going to have a great life the rest of your

lives either. Um, this could be very damaging to your lungs if if you have a serious about with with this disease, and therefore it's important for everybody, including as citizens, to help other citizens to make sure that you don't you're not the one making other people sick at the same time not making yourself sick. Kara Swisher, host of the Pivot and Recode Decode podcasts, thank you very much for joining me. Thanks a lot. This has been your

daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, follow us on I Heart Radio, or where ever you get your podcast