Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) subsidiary Verily has entered the limelight in an unflattering way after the company rolled out a coronavirus screening website that fell short of public expectations and was quickly inundated to the point of not working. The lackluster launch is due in part to false claims by President Donald Trump and the rush to assemble the website in a three-day period and the limited scale of the website.
Recently, President Trump claimed that Google was in the process of creating a website that would assist in the screening process for the novel coronavirus and that 1,700 Google engineers were working on the website. While Alphabet subsidiary Verily was working on a testing website, it was only a pilot program to be deployed in the Bay Area of California. The main website being developed by Google, touted by the President as a comprehensive screening tool, was to be far less feature-rich than the President had claimed.
Project Baseline, a website operated by Verily, is serving as the host for Alphabet's pilot program. The website allows Americans to participate in clinical research studies, and currently offers an online screening process on its front page. The screening process, according to Verily, is meant to help users who may be unsure if they are infected or not discern the likelihood of infection and direct them to one of two testing sites in the Bay Area. If a user already has severe symptoms they are advised not to visit testing sites and informed they are not eligible for testing, as the testing sites are not equipped for medical care. If a user reports severe symptoms, the website encourages them to seek medical attention. For others who may be infected, the site directs users to one of the testing sites.
Verily's testing sites are essentially "drive-thru" coronavirus testing, with healthcare workers on standby to quickly screen patients as they arrive. Despite being inundated with users flocking to the website on launch, traffic at the testing sites has been below expectations. During operations on Tuesday, testing sites were expected to process nearly 320 tests, but sources within Verily reported only roughly 20 tests.
Where this leaves Google's own ambitions with its larger scale project is unknown. While the President had promised a nationwide program similar to what is offered by Verily, there is no indication that Google is set to offer such a product. When approached by CNN for comment, Google pointed to what it had previously promised, and noted the differences between Verily's pilot project and Google's own plans.