President Biden gets offer from Amazon to help with COVID-19 vaccine
President Biden was on the receiving end of a letter from Amazon today, one offering the company's help with distributing the vaccine to the American public. The letter has been published in full, revealing that Amazon has teamed with a third-party occupational healthcare provider to vaccinate its workers on-site.
The Biden administration has stated a goal of providing 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations within the president's first 100 days in office. The letter from Amazon's consumer business CEO Dave Clark cites that goal as part of the offer, stating among other things that Amazon is 'prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration's vaccination efforts.'
NEW @NBCNews: Amazon has extended offer to President Joe Biden to assist with national Covid vaccine distribution.
In letter to @POTUS, Amazon Consumer CEO Dave Clark says "Amazon stands ready to assist you..."https://t.co/1DZ7apVy4H pic.twitter.com/DPoGi9yT4G
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) January 20, 2021
Biden announced the ambitious goal in early December, stating that his first 100 days in office will see at least 100 million COVID-19 vaccines administered — a goal that will be difficult to meet and that some have criticized as unreasonable. Biden later clarified that he meant 50 million Americans vaccinated, noting that the COVID-19 vaccination involves two doses of the vaccine.
In the letter, Clark stated that Amazon has more than 800,000 workers in the US and that most of them are classified as essential workers, meaning they can't work remotely from the safety of their homes.
"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 in that effort," Clark went on to state.
In addition to its readiness to have its workers vaccinated on-site at its facilities, the company states that it is also ready to use its resources to aid the nation's wider vaccine effort. The Biden administration has not publicly commented on the offer at this time; it is unclear whether a similar offer was extended to Trump.