On Friday, vacation rental company Airbnb offered assistance to the Biden administration with the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine across the country.
“In the context of President Biden’s call for the United States to make a ‘full-scale war effort’ to defeat COVID-19, we are writing to you to see if Airbnb can be useful in identifying homes that could be used as distribution of local vaccines in communities where there may be a shortage of pharmacies or medical facilities, ”wrote Christopher Lehane, senior vice president of global policy and communications at Airbnb in the letter. “These Airbnb ‘vaccine depots’ may be available in places where there are few or no health services or pharmacies, the so-called ‘health deserts’. In addition to being available to work with you to support the creation of vaccination sites, Airbnb and our host community in the U.S. are ready to support you and your team’s critical work in terms of accommodating workers traveling to distribute vaccines, if they need housing support. “
The Biden White House did not comment on the tech giant’s offer at this time.
The Airbnb letter follows Amazon reaching out to the Biden White House, also offering help with the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.
“As you begin your work leading the country out of the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon is ready to help you achieve your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration,” Dave Clark, company CEO consumer goods, he wrote in a letter on Wednesday, which was obtained by NBC News.
“We are prepared to leverage our operations, IT and communication skills and experience to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts,” continued Clark. “Our scale allows us to make a significant impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we are ready to assist you in that effort.”
Clark asked employees at Amazon supply centers and Whole Foods supermarkets “who can’t work at home” to get the vaccine as soon as possible.
Both offers come as the United States will soon begin the process of approving additional coronavirus vaccines.
Appearing on NBC News’ Meet the pressAnthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the country is “weeks away, not months” from fully evaluating Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccine candidates, as Biden plans to increase distribution after criticizing the Trump administration vaccine deployment. He continued to say:
I imagine that within a period of a week or more, or at most a few weeks, they will gather your data and show it to the [Food and Drug Administration]. They’ll have to get your data and the security monitoring board to see if it’s appropriate to start, you know, basically assembling the package to get an emergency use permit. But we’re weeks away, not months for sure.
The United States has administered 13.7 million injections since the beginning of inoculations on December 14 with healthcare professionals for an average of 847,387 doses per day, according to Bloomberg.
UPI contributed to this report.