The Biden administration is in talks with Amazon about how the tech giant can help with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout

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The Biden administration is in talks with Amazon about how the tech giant can help with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
  • The White House and Amazon confirmed to Politico they're in talks about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
  • Amazon offered to help the Biden administration with its vaccination plans last month.
  • Many tech companies including Google, Facebook, and Airbnb have made similar offers.
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The Biden Administration is looking into how it can tap Amazon's vast infrastructure to help with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

A White House spokesman confirmed to Politico that the administration is in talks with the tech giant. "We are consulting with many companies, including Amazon, about specific ways they can help execute the President's national strategy against COVID," the spokesman said.

"Companies with logistics and technical expertise could help Americans get vaccinated more efficiently and more equitably," he added.

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An Amazon spokesperson told Politico that it was "committed to assisting governments with vaccination efforts as we work together to protect our workers and continue to provide essential services during the pandemic."

Amazon was not immediately available to comment on exactly what aspects of vaccine distribution it's discussing with the administration.

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Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon's consumer business, wrote an open letter to Biden in January offering Amazon's help.

"We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration's vaccination efforts," Clark wrote.

The company has also opened a pop-up vaccination clinic in its hometown of Seattle, which aims to administer 2,000 vaccines via a partnership with the Virginia Mason Medical Center.

Other tech companies have offered their services to the US government: Airbnb's CEO also sent an open letter to the Biden administration in January saying the company could help set up "vaccine depots."

Google announced in January it would convert some of its work spaces into vaccination sites, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a December interview that he had been in touch with the then-incoming Biden administration to ask how the company could help with the coronavirus response.

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