In a letter sent to Biden on Wednesday, Amazon (AMZN) Executive Dave Clark wrote that the company “is ready to help” vaccinate 100 million Americans in the first 100 days, as Biden promised to do.
As part of this offering, Clark pointed out that Amazon has more than 800,000 employees based in the United States – most of whom work in key roles at Amazon distribution centers, AWS data centers and Whole Foods Market stores – and these employees “They should receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time.” He added that Amazon has an agreement in place with a third-party occupational health provider licensed to administer vaccines on its premises.
It is not the first time that Amazon advocates early access to the vaccine for its essential workers. In December, Clark wrote a letter to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices about access to the vaccine “at the earliest appropriate time.” Others sent similar orders, including Uber for their drivers, and the National Retail Federation, which advocated the retail sector.
The momentum comes at a time when worker safety has become an area of intense scrutiny during the company’s pandemic, whose business has grown even with the economy generally mired in a pandemic-induced recession. In October, Amazon said that more than 19,000 of its frontline employees at Amazon and Whole Foods tested positive or were found to be positive for coronavirus, shedding light for the first time on how their workforce was affected by Covid-19 after months of internal and external pressure for more transparency.
In Clark’s letter, he suggested that the company could help management more broadly, although the details are unclear.
He wrote that Amazon is “prepared to leverage our operations, information technology and communication and experience capabilities to assist its administration’s vaccination efforts. Our scale allows us to make a significant impact immediately in the fight against Covid-19, and we are ready to assist you in this effort. “
Amazon did not immediately respond to CNN Business’s request for more information.
