SEATTLE — Amazon is offering its colossal operations network and advanced technologies to assist President Joe Biden in his vow to get 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations to Americans in his first 100 days in office.
The CEO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer division, Dave Clark, said in a letter to Biden that the company has a deal with a licensed third-party occupational health care provider to give vaccines on-site at its facilities.
“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,” wrote Clark.
Specifically, Clark says the company is prepared to leverage its operations, IT and communications capabilities to help.
Biden will sign 10 pandemic-related executive orders on Thursday, his second day in office, but the administration says efforts to supercharge the rollout of vaccines have been hampered by lack of cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition.
The administration is also hoping to negotiate a new coronavirus relief package with Congress. It recently put forward a $1.9 trillion proposal to address many problems caused by the pandemic.
As of Thursday, more than 407,100 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States and the country is nearing a total of 24.5 million coronavirus cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says more than 35.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed and over 16.5 million doses have been administered so far.