“How can I help medical workers?”
“Where can I donate medical supplies?”
“How to help nurses.”
“How to help doctors.”
People are searching these terms on Google in record numbers as countries around the world continue to battle the coronavirus outbreak.
The web giant posted an emotive video (below) on Sunday, March 29, showing the online inquiries while at the same time paying tribute to health care workers everywhere for their tireless efforts in increasingly challenging conditions.
The 60-second video is peppered with uplifting comments from medical professionals, some of them a direct response to the search queries from people at home as they seek to learn more about the coronavirus (officially known as COVID-19), and find out how they can support those working on the front line.
“Step by step, we’re going to figure this out, and we’re going to find a way through this,” one health care worker says directly to camera.
Three others deliver a message together, saying simply: “We stay at work for you — you stay at home for us,” a reference to the need for those under shelter-in-place orders to remain indoors to help slow the spread of the virus.
The stirring sequence wraps up with a short montage of regular folks saying thank you to all those involved in the fight against the virus at hospitals around the world, before ending with the message: “Help save lives by staying home.”
It also points viewers to more information and resources via google.com/covid19.
Google has reportedly ditched plans for its annual April Fools’ Day jokes “out of respect for all those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to an internal email. It said its main aim at the current time “is to be helpful to people,” suggesting employees “save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one.” The company has a reputation for daft April 1 gags that in the past have included wacky fake products or quirky games.
As of March 29, there have been 722,649 recorded cases of COVID-19 globally, with 142,224 cases in the United States. Deaths related to the virus currently number 33,983, with 2.485 of them occurring in the U.S.
