In an effort to help speed up vaccine distribution, Walmart, Starbucks, Amazon, and Microsoft are all working to help get COVID-19 vaccinations out to the public. Working alongside President Biden, their goal is to administer 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days of his administration. Recent results show that even though 39 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed, only 2.8 million people have been fully vaccinated.
Vaccines continue to remain hard to get and the pandemic continues to affect the economy. Corporate giants are planning to utilize both their logistics and technological resources to help get vaccines distributed to the public.
First Walmart has offered the vaccine at 5,000 of its U.S. locations. Starting this week, they will have it available in seven states, plus Chicago and Puerto Rico. Walmart anticipates giving somewhere between 10 million to 13 million doses a month.
Washington Governor, Jay Inslee communicated that a public-private alliance with the following companies, Starbucks, Microsoft, Costco, and other homegrown brands will deliver vaccines in the state, “as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
Amazon worked with a Seattle hospital to deliver as many as 2,000 vaccines to the public over the weekend. Dave Clark, Amazon’s worldwide consumer CFO, wrote a letter to President Biden saying, “Amazon is 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.”
Starbucks, Microsoft, and Costco partnered with labor leaders and health officials to achieve Washington state’s goal of 45,000 daily vaccinations. Microsoft is offering “technology expertise and support.” Costco will be assisting in delivery through its pharmacies and Starbucks will be helping with “operational efficiency, scalable modeling and human-centered design expertise.”
Along with the distribution of the vaccine, some big-name companies are offering facilities for mass distribution of the vaccine. Disneyland in California, Dodger Stadium and Petco Park home of the San Diego Padres have converted into major distribution sites for the vaccine. Several others that include State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, Minute Maid Park in Houston and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami are being utilized as distribution sites for vaccines. Biden’s administrations plan to get another 100 similar sites open in the coming weeks.
Sources
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/23/amazon-covid-vaccine-distribution-461525
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/22/retailers-coronavirus-vaccine-distribution/
