In a letter to President Joe Biden, Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday offered to use its vast logistical resources to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S.
“Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s CEO of worldwide consumer business, said in the letter.
Biden has vowed to quickly ramp up the nation’s coronavirus response and implement a nationwide vaccination program. The Trump administration had left it to states to handle the vaccination rollout individually, leading to numerous problems.
“We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts,” Clark wrote. “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.”
Amazon AMZN, +4.57% said it has an agreement in place with a third-party health-care provider to offer vaccinations to its more than 800,000 employees in the U.S., and is “prepared to move quickly once vaccines are available.”
Wider public-health considerations aside, an effective vaccine rollout is critical to Amazon’s business: Most of its employees are classified as “essential” employees who cannot work from home, and as of September, more than 19,000 Amazon workers in the U.S. had already been infected by the coronavirus, according to Reuters.
It was unclear if Amazon had previously offered similar assistance to the Trump administration. Former President Donald Trump has had a years-long feud with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post.
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