Amazon Offers To Help Biden Ramp up Vaccine Distribution

Amazon has extended its vast logistical resources to help President Joe Biden in speeding up the country's COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Given that it is one of the country's largest businesses, Amazon does well in logistics and distribution efforts despite its flaws, noted Ars Technica.

If Amazon would help in the national distribution of vaccines, the move may help expedite the federal effort to combat the pandemic.

Part of President Biden's plans is to ramp up coronavirus response and implement a vaccination distribution program. He said he'll invoke the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine supply and will use the National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency to distribute.

In a letter obtained by NBC News, Dave Clark, Amazon's head of consumer business, said: "Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration."

Presently, vaccination rollout had been left to states, and this setup led to numerous problems.

Amazon Touts Logistical Scale in Providing Meaningful Impact Against COVID-19

In the letter sent to the president shortly after the inauguration Wednesday, Clark said Amazon is prepared to leverage its operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to help the Biden administration improve the vaccination efforts.

He added that they had agreements with third-party healthcare providers to help in administering vaccines on-site at Amazon-owned facilities.

"We are prepared to move quickly once vaccines are available," Clark assured. Getting involved in the effort is critical for Amazon as most of their employees are classified as essential workers.

Clark said the company's 800,000 essential workers who can't do their work from home would be in the vaccination queue as soon as possible. Amazon has employees in Amazon warehouses, Amazon Web Services data centers, and Whole Foods stores.

Amazon representative Jodi Seth said they were "in touch" with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services last month.

However, it remains unclear if Amazon made a similar offer directly to former President Donald Trump, noted Market Watch. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, reportedly had a years-long feud with Trump.

Some Question Amazon's Late Offer to Assist in Vaccine Distribution

An Amazon spokesperson did not explain why there wasn't a similar offer to the Trump administration and why it chose to extend help now. But the company told Fox News that it kept contact with U.S. government officials over the last nine months about the COVID-19 response.

They also pointed to a request for the CDC to prioritize their essential workers, even though it made no mention of assistance in distributing vaccines.

The Food and Drug Administration first issued emergency use authorization for Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine on December 11, 2020. It was then followed with Moderna's approval a week later.

So far, more than 16 million people in America have been vaccinated, and around 35 million shots were distributed.