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Gates Package, p.912 · gates:exh:00322
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Or, if test supplies were limited, the site might determine that their case wasn't a high enough
priority and notify them when they could be tested.
Not only would the site have made sure that testing kits were used most efficiently--for
the people most likely to actually test positive--it also would have given the government
additional information about parts of the country where too few people were showing an interest
in getting tested. With this data, the government could have directed more resources toward
getting the word out and expanding testing in those areas. The site would also have provided
people with instant eligibility to participate in a clinical trial, if they tested positive or were at
high risk, and it could later have been used to help make sure that vaccines went to the people at
the highest risk of getting severely sick or dying. And it would be useful in non-pandemic times
too for fighting other infectious diseases.
Any software company worth its salt could have built this site in no time,* but instead
states and cities were left to their own devices, and the whole process was chaotic. It was like the
Wild West. I remember one especially heated call with people from the White House and CDC
in which I was quite rude about their refusal to take this basic step. To this day I don't
understand why they wouldn't let the most innovative country in the world use modern
communications technology to fight a deadly disease.
3. In the face of something the world should have been
* Microsoft would've done it for free, and I'm sure many other companies would have
too.