Amazon offer to help Biden administration with Covid-19 vaccine distribution

Amazon.com Inc have pledged to help with the United States' Covid-19 vaccine rollout in a letter to President Joe Biden. No other nation in the world has suffered as many Covid-19 infections or deaths than the US – as of today, there have been 24,552,405 positive cases during the pandemic while 408,382 people have died of the virus. Biden warned on Thursday that the US death toll could reach half a million by next month, adding that the rollout of the vaccine under the Trump administration has been a "dismal failure so far." In a White House event, Biden said, "Things are going to continue to get worse before they get better".

According to data issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 21 January, 37,960,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been distributed and 17,546,374 individuals have received the jab. Under Operation Warp Speed, the original goal is to produce and deliver 300 million doses of safe and effective vaccines with the initial doses available by January 2021

The president has laid out a goal of delivering 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses within his first 100 days in office, a plan which Amazon say they will fully support by offering “information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise”.

Amazon's letter to Joe Biden

In his letter to the president, Clark wrote:

Dear President Biden,

Congratulations to you and Vice President Harris on your inauguration. As you begin your work leading the country out of the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration.

As the nation's second largest employer, Amazon has over 800,000 employees in the United States, most of whom are essential workers who cannot work from home. We are proud of the role our employees have played to help customers stay safe and receive important products and services at home, which is critical for people with underlying medical conditions and those susceptible to complications from COVID-19. The essential employees working at Amazon fulfillment centers, AWS data centers, and Whole Foods Market stores across the country who cannot work from home should receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time. We will assist them in that effort.

We have an agreement in place with a licensed third-party occupational health care provider to administer vaccines on-site at our Amazon facilities. We are prepared to move quickly once vaccines are available. Additionally, we are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration's vaccination efforts. Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort.

Since the beginning of this crisis, we have worked hard to keep our workers safe. We are committed to assisting your administration's vaccination efforts as we work together to protect our employees and continue to provide essential services during the pandemic.

Amazon