Hello, Slate Podcast listeners. I'm here to remind you to take the Slate Survey. It will be open through April 1st and your answers help us make a better slate. It'll only take a few minutes. You can find it at slate.com slash survey.

Hey, everyone. This is Henry Grabar. I'm in for Lizzie this week. Before we get started, I just wanted to give you a

little heads up. I am recording this in my closet, in my apartment in Chicago. So I apologize for any

inconsistencies with the sound. I guess this is the new normal. Remember, if you can, last Friday.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Beautiful day in the Rose Garden.

Major League Baseball had just suspended its season.

Broadway theaters had just closed their doors.

The previous day had seen Wall Street's worst route since 1987.

And Donald Trump, for the first time, appeared to be taking the coronavirus seriously.

Today I'd like to provide an update to the American people on several decisive new actions we're taking.

I was lying in bed listening to the press conference and Trump was speaking.

That's Mason Marks. He's a lawyer who teaches at Gonzaga and he studies health law,

technology, and privacy. So Trump was standing in the Rose Garden of the White House and he was

flanked by a group of CEOs

from some of the largest retailers like Walmart and CBS. And he was mentioning how some of these

retailers were going to partner with the administration to offer drive-through testing for the novel coronavirus.

The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car.

But then he just mentioned Google kind of nonchalantly and that really caught my attention. So I kind of like sat up in bed.

I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website to determine whether a test is

warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.

Now Mason was paying attention. He'd written last year for Slate about a Google partnership that

...