Amazon is offering President Joe Biden its operational expertise to transport coronavirus vaccines quickly across the country as the government struggles with the logistics of the vaccination. But the move could also help the company increase its own ambitions to expand into the $ 3.8 billion healthcare market.
The company made a pitch Wednesday, hours after Biden was sworn in, and gave little detail on how it plans to help with the struggling distribution of vaccines. But if accepted, the offer could give Amazon a valuable new amount of health data, just as it expands to pharmacy and digital health. This worries critics – including progressive people urging Biden to keep Big Tech businesses afloat.
“It has to be transparent, and it has to be a sincere offer of help, not a quid-pro-quo,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University who specializes in public health law. He said he was concerned that Amazon could use any federal agreement to boost its own corporate advantage because they are well known as a company for literally trying to dominate the market and exercise any competition. ‘
“To the extent that it is a back door to do this with our own government, we should not take it seriously, but we should be very concerned,” he said.
An Amazon spokesman rejected the idea that the company’s offer was motivated by a desire to get competitive leverage or generate good publicity. The spokesman, noting that Amazon made a similar offer to states last month, said it was a matter of public responsibility for companies to help with the health crisis.
“There are things we as a country will have to do to get through this pandemic, and that includes lending our experience and expertise on things like logistics and the testing program we have built up,” the spokesman said.
It is unclear how serious the new White House is taking Amazon’s offer, which a company spokesman said is still being finalized. A White House representative, when asked about the administration’s view, noted that the vaccination effort is a ‘huge challenge’ that requires’ public, private and non-profit sectors to work together to provide the solutions on a scale that we need. ”
Amazon’s bid comes as Biden officials say they are trying to repair a vaccine distribution system they inherited from the Trump administration. Jeff Zients, Biden’s Covid-19 coordinator, complained this week that officials have limited ability to monitor the allocation and distribution of vaccines. Biden has vowed to bring about a strong federal vaccination effort after former President Donald Trump drove most of the work to states, saying they had little insight into the country’s vaccine supply.
In the letter from Amazon to Biden, Dave Clark, head of global operations, said that the company’s scale “enables us to immediately make a significant impact in the fight against COVID-19.” Clark wrote, is “willing to leverage our operations, information technology and communication skills and expertise to help your administration’s vaccination efforts.”
Some say it is a potentially attractive offer. Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy for the country’s largest hospital portal, the American Hospital Association, said the vaccination effort needed more “expertise in managing significant logistical challenges.”
“We welcome such announcements from Amazon that will help get more shots in the country,” Foster said.
The Trump administration has used large companies to help distribute vaccines. It has contracted with UPS and FedEx to handle aviation, American Airlines on air cargo and McKesson for the distribution of Moderna’s shots. Experts said a government collaboration with Amazon could be beneficial if the company fills gaps in the supply chain.
Other corporate giants joined the vaccination effort this week. In Washington state, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has partnered with Starbucks, Microsoft, Costco and others to help implement the state. Amazon also opened a pop-up vaccination site at its Seattle headquarters on Sunday with the goal of delivering 2,000 shots.
The Amazon spokesman said the company’s internal Covid-19 test sites could also be vaccination points. There are currently more than 650 in the entire company, the spokesman said, with the capacity to test up to 50,000 employees a day.
Some critics have stressed that any federal government deal with Amazon needs to be scrutinized – and in the absence of details, some have seen potential landmines. Technical watchdogs warn that Amazon’s offer to help comes just two months after launching an online pharmacy after years of speculation that it was monitoring the market.
Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, a corporate watchdog group, said she was concerned about how Amazon would use information from a vaccination effort.
“Amazon is a company that has already collected an unparalleled amount of data about Americans and we have no idea how it will handle the data obtained through the distribution of vaccines,” she said.
Some Amazon critics have said they see Biden’s offer to Biden as an attempt to increase Washington’s support, while the company and the technology industry in general are experiencing an increasing scrutiny of their business practices, including the use of user data.
“This is Amazon’s effort to win the favor of Democrats and strengthen the idea that its excessive power is something we must accept,” said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Independence’s Sustainable Community Development Group. said. the distribution of vaccines at local level.
Other critics are skeptical that Amazon’s offer will cost much.
“It’s a government function,” said Alex Harman of the Public Citizen group. “It may require place-to-place partnerships, and it can occasionally yield private resources, but the actual doing of logistics and inventing logistics is what the government is for.”