Google will kick in $150 million “to promote vaccine education and equitable distribution and make it easier to find locally relevant information, including when and where to get the vaccine,” the company announced in a Monday (Jan. 25) blog post.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve helped more than 100 government agencies and global nongovernmental organizations run critical public service health announcements through our Ad Grants Crisis Relief program,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the blog post. “Today, we’re announcing an additional $100 million in ad grants for the CDC Foundation, the World Health Organization, and nonprofits around the globe. We’ll invest another $50 million in partnership with public health agencies to reach underserved communities with vaccine-related content and information.”
He added that Google’s “efforts will focus heavily on equitable access to vaccines. Early data in the U.S. shows that disproportionately affected populations — especially people of color and those in rural communities — aren’t getting access to the vaccine at the same rates as other groups.”
To address that, Google.org, the company’s charitable arm, “has committed $5 million in grants to organizations addressing racial and geographic disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations.” The blog post said these would include the CDC Foundation and the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Satcher Health Leadership Institute.
Pichai said web searches for “vaccines near me” have increased by fivefold since the beginning of the year. To make the web searches more relevant, “COVID-19 vaccination locations will be available in Google Search and Maps, starting with Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, with more states and countries to come.”
Other U.S. companies have gotten onboard to aid the COVID-19 vaccination effort.
In North Carolina, top executives at such companies as Honeywell, Atrium Health and Tepper Sports & Entertainment have approached Gov. Roy Cooper with their plan to hold a three-day, drive-through vaccination clinic to test their strategies at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Atrium will help deliver the vaccine, while Honeywell will offer up tech solutions to reduce paperwork and provide digital documents.
In Washington state, Starbucks and other private companies have volunteered to assist with logistics. And Amazon has stepped forward to offer President Biden the company’s “operations, information, technology and communications capabilities” to aid the effort.
ZocDoc CEO Oliver Kharraz said his company plans to help health departments by offering up its healthcare-scheduling tools.
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