Op-Ed: “All Hands on Deck”!
Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden received a letter from Amazon, offering its help with logistics and the use of its operational experitse to move COVID vaccines across the country, and to use some of its testing sites to deliver doses to the American people.
“As you begin your work leading the country out of the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration,” wrote Dave Clark, head of global operations
“We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts. Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort.”
“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,” said Clark.
While some are worried about whether Amazon will use the help to get Americans innoculated as a way to increase their entry into the health care industry, the company claims that the offer was made as a matter of public responsiblity. “There are things that we as a country will have to do to get through this pandemic and that includes lending our experience and expertise on things like logistics and the testing program we built,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon already has contracted with a health care provider to administer vaccines to Amazon employees, and Whole Foods workers who provide essential grocery and delivery services. Some members of the health care industry say that Amazon can help, including Nancy Foster, a vice president for the American Hospital Assocation, who said, “We welcome announcements like this from Amazon that will help get more shots into arms across the country.”
We would also welcome the assistance of America’s greatest delivery company. The term All Hands on Deck, applies to the millions of Americans waiting to get their shot. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t think that Amazon could help.
I have already asked ‘Alexa’ to schedule my vaccine. Amazon has 800,000 US workers and is our country’s 2nd largest employer, behind Walmart. More than 19,000 Amazon employees
The company employs more than 800,000 people in the United States, making it the second-biggest private employer behind Walmart Inc. More than 20,000 Amazon- U.S. workers have contracted the virus, and if Amazon were involved in the vaccination process, there employees would likely be innoculated quickly. But that would be another 800,000 Americans who would get the vaccine, and every American who gets the vaccine makes it less likely that the rest of us would contract the virus.
So two weeks after receiving the offer, we hope that President Biden is ready to accept it.
Note: Several published reports have wondered why Amazon made the offer to President Biden and not President Trump? Perhaps the reason can be found in the dozens of times former President Trump attacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and the newspaper that he owns, The Washington Post?
Dan Murphy, Editor, Rising Media Group
