In January, when Amazon offered to help the Biden administration with the federal government’s ongoing pandemic response, it said it would inoculate its more than 800,000 employee workforce. The company is now beginning that process, with on-site vaccinations for frontline workers to begin in the coming weeks at select fulfillment centers in Missouri, Nevada and Kansas.
Amazon says it will expand the program as more vaccines become available in other states. In the meantime, it gives a bonus of $ 80 to workers being vaccinated independently. That bonus is in addition to other incentives the company gave out to employees during the pandemic. It’s worth noting that Amazon isn’t the only company helping get people vaccinated in the US. For example, Walmart organizes community events in 43 states to vaccinate people in disadvantaged communities.
The start of workers’ vaccinations is the latest development in what has been a long saga associated with Amazon’s response to the pandemic. One of the more recent developments is a New York State lawsuit alleging that the company failed to properly disinfect two of its facilities and follow proper contact tracing procedures. Amazon has said it has done its best to protect its employees – while now also embroiled in a debate on Twitter about whether its policies incentivize employees urinate in bottlesIn October, the company released data on how many employees tested or believed positive for COVID-19. Between March 1 and September 19, 2020, the company said that number was 19,816. Based on data it looked at from Johns Hopkins University, it estimated that the number of positive cases should have been above 30,000.