Corporate America Steps Up To Aid COVID Vaccine Effort

Some of the nation’s top executives have been reaching out to state and federal officials to offer their companies’ services to help speed the delivery and administration of COVID-19 vaccinations.

In North Carolina, chief executives of companies such as Honeywell, Atrium Health and Tepper Sports & Entertainment are putting their heads together to figure out how they can make the rollout, which has hit multiple speed bumps, more efficient, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The North Carolinian executives have approached Gov. Roy Cooper with their plan to hold a three-day, drive-thru vaccination clinic to test their strategies at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which will provide shots to 15,000 people. Atrium will help deliver the vaccine, while Honeywell will offer up tech solutions to reduce paperwork, provide digital documents, speed up administration and implement track-and-trace practices.

In Washington state, Starbucks and other private companies have volunteered to assist with logistics such as layouts for vaccine administration sites and strategies to cut down on wait times. And Amazon has stepped forward to offer President Biden the company’s “operations, information, technology and communications capabilities” to help speed up the effort, the Journal said.

Securing an appointment for a vaccine has been particularly problematic in many states. Vaccination facilities are often open just a few hours a day, while local health departments have struggled with implementing efficient booking systems. ZocDoc CEO Oliver Kharraz told the Journal that his company plans to help health departments by offering up its healthcare scheduling tools.

Meanwhile, Biden has said he plans to make the COVID-19 vaccine program a top priority during his first months in office. Biden’s strategy calls for the administration of 100 million vaccinations during his first 100 days in office, along with the creation of 100 vaccination centers around the country. The Biden administration has also pledged to accelerate dose allocation, provide more state funding and set up large-scale vaccination sites at places such as stadiums and conference centers.

In a recent interview with Karen Webster, Othman Laraki, co-founder and CEO of healthcare tech firm Color Health, said the U.S. healthcare system is not well-equipped to handle the logistics of a mass vaccination program.