COVID – 19 – Tests only with Gmail account and smartphone, and only if you divulge health data and approve their disclosure to unknown third parties – that’s how the Alphabet subsidiary Verily launched government-funded coronavirus testing in California. The 55 million US dollar project was supposed to help poor and otherwise underserved people to get COVID tests. Because this goal is not achieved in this way, two counties stop working with Verily.

San Francisco and Alameda have stopped working with Verily, reports the Kaiser Health Network (KHN). Verily operates stationary and mobile coronavirus test stations and an online platform for making appointments in about half of California’s 58 Counties. Partner laboratories take over the evaluation. The system is intended to “ensure that we are really testing California, broadly defined – not just parts of California and those that somehow have the privilege of being preferred,” as California Governor Gavon Newsom affirmed in April.

Gmail compulsory Verily requires that everyone willing to test use a Gmail account. Verily justifies this with “security”. In addition, each participant must disclose chronic illnesses, and then agree that the mandatory disclosed health data may also be passed on to unnamed contractual partners, government agencies and “other institutions that support the test program”.

Whoever refuses, does not get an appointment via Verily’s platform. This particularly frightens members of the already underserved target groups. You have little confidence in authorities and corporations. Too often they were badly treated, ignored, or even robbed by them.

Protection only in exchange for data Verily also distributed protective equipment such as gloves and masks that are unaffordable for the poor. But even that was only available to those who had given their data. The COVID rates are many times higher than the average, especially for the socially disadvantaged.

“For us this is an old story,” said Dr. Noha Aboelata, head of a clinic in Oakland, told KHN, “Companies that don’t really care about our community come rushing in with gifts, but what they take away is far more valuable.” Namely, the health data. Aboelata found Verily’s access so unworthy that she stopped working with Verily after just six days.

Another contributing factor was that Verily advertised the test station as a drive-in, even though she was consistent with the needs of the local population, was set up for pedestrians. The wrong description attracted wealthy people from other areas, who were then angry because they had to park their vehicle and walk a bit – in a slum “where they have probably never been and apparently did not want to be,” reported the doctor, ” You made quite a scene. ” So bad and drooling that several had to be thrown out.

Smartphone compulsory in San Francisco Verilys is surprisingly inflexible Appointments. You can get tested the next day at the earliest. This is particularly frustrating for people who come to the test site to register online because they don’t have their own internet access. Even if the nurses are bored, patients will have to come back at a specific time another day. This is a high hurdle in the target group.

In the city center of San Francisco, a smartphone was also required to make an appointment on site. Those who did not have one were sent away – and with that they also lost the promised shopping voucher for ten dollars. The fact that people with smartphones don’t have to make appointments on site but can use their smartphones to do so didn’t matter.

Many socially disadvantaged people definitely have a Gmail account and would use it. However, a large number of people have forgotten their password because people without the Internet rarely need the password. Now, in order to reset the password, Google requires that the account holder either knows the password of another email account that was previously stored, or that he still has the same telephone number as when the Gmail account was set up. An unfamiliar requirement for the target group.

Only in two languages ​​ To make matters worse, Verily demands that everyone willing to test Provide information yourself. Help from third parties is not permitted. At the same time, Verily provides the registration in English and Spanish only. Verily assumes that all Californians can read and write enough to answer questions about illnesses in writing and to understand and accept data protection regulations.

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