- The White House and Amazon have confirmed to Politico that they are in talks on the deployment of COVID-19.
- Amazon offered last month to assist the administration of Biden with its vaccination plans.
- Many tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Airbnb, have made similar offers.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
The Biden administration is investigating how it can leverage Amazon’s extensive infrastructure to help with the COVID-19 vaccination.
A White House spokesman confirmed to Politico that the administration was in talks with the technology giant. “We are consulting with many companies, including Amazon, on specific ways in which they can execute the president’s national strategy against COVID,” the spokesman said.
“Companies with logistics and technical expertise can help Americans be vaccinated more efficiently and fairly,” he added.
An Amazon spokesman told Politico that he was “committed to assisting governments with vaccination efforts while working together to protect our workers and continue to provide essential services during the pandemic.” ‘
Amazon was not immediately available to comment on exactly what aspects of vaccine distribution are being discussed with the administration.
Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s consumer industry, wrote an open letter to Biden in January offering Amazon’s help.
“We are willing to leverage our operations, information technology and communication skills and expertise to help your vaccination,” Clark wrote.
The company also opened a pop-up vaccination clinic in its hometown of Seattle, which aims to administer 2,000 vaccines through a partnership with Virginia Mason Medical Center.
Other tech companies have offered their services to the U.S. government: Airbnb’s CEO also sent an open letter to the Biden government in January, saying the company could help ‘introduce vaccines’.
Google announced in January that it would turn some of its workspaces into vaccination sites, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview in December that he was in contact with the then Biden administration to ask how the company could help with the coronavirus response.
Axel Springer, the parent company of Insider Inc., is an Airbnb investor.