Amazon offers to help President Biden speed up the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, inviting questions about whether the offer was ever made to the Trump administration.
Amazon executive Dave Clark introduced the idea to Biden as soon as he took office in a letter Wednesday that also congratulated him on his inauguration.
“We are prepared to leverage our capabilities and experience in operations, computing and communications to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts. Our scale allows us to make a significant impact immediately,” Clark wrote.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing on Thursday afternoon that “we have had a lot of publicity, some privately, others publicly, from various companies and entities in the sector. private. And we certainly appreciate it. And we will study all these offers. “
A journalist insisted on Psaki about the timing of Amazon’s bid, asking if the tech giant waited until Trump left office as “a political call … while life is hanging.
“I’m not aware of the timeline of when Amazon arrived. Sounds like a question to me on Amazon, ”Psaki said.
Biden has made vaccine distribution one of its top priorities, promising to distribute 100 million doses of vaccine in its first 100 days. The rate would slightly exceed last week’s Trump rate 912,497 doses given per day.
Trump routinely attacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, and asked the U.S. postal service to charge more to Amazon for delivering packages.
Clark, the Amazon executive who gave Biden the idea, was responsible for a December letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling for help accessing the vaccine for the company’s workers.
Clark wrote to Biden that Amazon’s help could change the game.
“Our scale allows us to have a significant impact immediately on the fight against COVID-19, and we are ready to assist you in this endeavor,” Clark wrote.
“Since the beginning of this crisis, we have worked hard to keep our workers safe. We are committed to helping your administration’s vaccination efforts as we work together to protect our employees and continue to provide essential services during the pandemic.”
The e-commerce and cloud computing giant has one of the most sophisticated distribution and shipping operations in the country.
Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013 for $ 250 million. The newspaper had a strained relationship with Trump, who called the newspaper “expensive … lobbyist for Amazon.”
The Trump Justice Department investigated Amazon for antitrust concerns.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the investigation in a 2019 CNBC appearance, arguing that Amazon “has destroyed the retail industry in the United States.”
In a 2019 publication, Bezos defended his ownership of the newspaper and wrote, “My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifier for me. It is inevitable that certain powerful people who experience the news of the Washington Post will mistakenly conclude that I am their enemy. “
He added: “My management of The Post and my support for its mission, which will continue to be unwavering, is what I will be most proud of when I am 90 and review my life, if I am lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexity you believe me “.
An Amazon representative did not immediately respond to The Post’s request to comment on correspondence with the Trump administration and whether the company offered Trump’s support in distributing vaccines.
Arriving for NBC News, an Amazon representative said the company had been “in touch” last month with CDC, but would not say if the company had made the same openings to Trump.
In a tweet posted Thursday afternoon, Amazon’s public policy team defended its behavior saying, “Actually, we didn’t wait.
“We offered help to the Trump administration for vaccines, created new tools for researchers and public health authorities, dedicated Operation Warp Speed to logistics, advised on testing, and fly with PPE from China when America needed it most “