--- title: "Amazon Offers to Help White House Distribute COVID Vaccine" description: "In a letter obtained by Reuters, Amazon offered to help president Joe Biden with the country's efforts to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine." date: "2021-01-21" modified: "2021-01-21" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/amazon-distribute-covid-vaccine" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "joe biden" - "vaccine" --- # Amazon Offers to Help White House Distribute COVID Vaccine ![In a letter obtained by Reuters, Amazon offered to help president Joe Biden with the country's efforts to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine.]() *\Image: Amazon/Victor Tangermann\* In a Wednesday letter [obtained by *Reuters*](), Amazon offered to help the new American president Joe Biden with the country's efforts to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine. The retailer, which is the country's second largest employer behind Walmart, offered to open the doors of its many facilities around the country to help healthcare providers administer vaccines. "We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts," Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, wrote in the letter, as quoted by *Reuters*. Amazon "stands ready to assist you in reaching \[Biden's\] goal" of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of the president's first term. Biden's newly released [vaccine distribution plan]() also calls for mobilizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard, as well as leveraging community health centers and pharmacies to administer shots. So far, the country's vaccination rollout has met plenty of hurdles and delays. According to [*Bloomberg*'s vaccine tracker](), 17.2 million doses have been administered in the US to date, falling well [short of federal projections](). Meanwhile, [thousands of appointments]() are being cancelled as shipments of the vaccines have ground to a halt in light of dwindling supplies and a [non-existent reserve for booster shots](). In light of all that, Amazon throwing its weight behind the national inoculation campaign could provide much-needed momentum. Amazon's facilities range from massive warehouses and shops to the Whole Foods grocery chain. The online retailer's main strength will be to aid with "last mile" distribution, getting vaccines from distributions into arms. Complicating these efforts, however, is the fact that both Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines need to be shipped inside freezers. Pfizer's in particular needs to be kept at ultra-cold storage between -80 and -60 Celcius. ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()