TechNet members have powered America during the pandemic by producing personal protective equipment and ventilators, helping scientists to discover new drug treatments and research vaccines, reducing barriers to telework, connecting students and teachers, empowering small businesses with e-commerce solutions, delivering food, providing emergency transportation, and facilitating contact tracing, all while upholding IT infrastructures.
Now, tech is powering COVID vaccine distribution. Here are just a few of the many examples of how tech is helping vaccinate our country and energize our economic recovery:
Accenture
Accenture is offering paid time off for employees to get a COVID vaccine. The company is also offering onsite clinics at larger locations across the U.S. for employees and their families to get vaccinated. The company is also covering the cost of vaccinations in countries where that is possible. Accenture has also launched a global education series where employees hear directly from the scientific community about the importance of being vaccinated and can get their questions answered.
Amazon
Amazon is vaccinating front-line employees on-site at several locations throughout the country. The company is also offering $80 to front-line workers who get vaccinated off-site.
Amyris
Amyris is working to make the vaccine more widely accessible and removing barriers/bottlenecks in the current COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing process. The company has partnered with the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) to advance a novel RNA vaccine platform, including the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. This platform is expected to offer manufacturing, storage, and distribution advantages for the use and development of future vaccines, and to address the ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and other potential pandemics.
AT&T
AT&T is providing up to four hours of PTO (per dose) if an employee gets vaccinated during work hours. The company also informed all U.S.-based employees about vaccine availability nearest them. AT&T is also using several of its buildings as public vaccination sites. AT&T is also helping healthcare organizations ensure those who need the vaccine can get it. FirstNet, AT&T’s network for first responders and the public safety community, is also helping to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine efficiently and effectively.
Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy donated $199,000 to the Valley Medical Center Foundation in Santa Clara County, CA to cover the costs of a mobile COVID-19 vaccine unit. The mobile unit will be used to help target residents who are homebound, elderly and disabled, and live in the county’s underserved areas that have been hard hit by the pandemic.
Cisco
Cisco’s technology has aided in the distribution of the vaccine allowing storage and distribution to be safe and appropriately monitored. Cisco’s networking, Wi-Fi and security technology has helped stand up and run COVID testing sites, field hospitals, and vaccination clinics. That same Wi-Fi technology has helped schools connect with students to continue remote education throughout the pandemic. Cisco is also giving every Cisco employee time off to receive and rest after getting the vaccine. In addition, at the start of the pandemic, Cisco provided $500 million in cash and technology to support immediate recovery efforts, help nonprofits meet the needs of their most vulnerable community members, meet the rapidly-changing needs of healthcare facilities, and enable businesses to shift to a remote working environment.
CLEAR
CLEAR introduced Health Pass, a free mobile app that empowers people to confirm they have met Covid-related requirements for entry set by businesses and venues, while staying in control of their information. Working with the Partnership for NYC, CLEAR is providing 1 million free user enrollments and 750 integrated temperature screening kiosks to businesses in New York, with a specific percentage of free enrollments dedicated for small businesses and restaurants and women-and minority-owned businesses. CLEAR is also offering two months free membership for its signature CLEAR+ airport security solution to anyone with proof of vaccination to help restart the travel industry.
Comcast
Comcast NBCUniversal launched Plan Your Vaccine, a nationwide awareness campaign, website, and interactive tool that provides the latest news and information about when and where people can receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Plan Your Vaccine is available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, and has received over 7 million page views to date with more than 30,000 vaccination locations listed. Comcast NBCUniversal has also rolled out a comprehensive marketing, advertising, and PSA campaign to support vaccination efforts with talent from across the NBCUniversal portfolio, including an integration with the INDY 500 later this month.
Cruise
Cruise is working to ensure the health of its communities by encouraging and providing assistance to all of its employees, contingent workforce, and on-site vendors to get vaccinated. Cruise has also partnered with Walgreens to host on-site COVID-19 vaccination clinics for employees in San Francisco and Phoenix, and provide necessary time off, both for and after vaccination.
Dell
Dell has joined the #MoveTheNeedle campaign to support the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, increase vaccine uptake, and encourage everyone to continue to wear masks and take other precautions as the vaccination effort is underway. Dell also recently hosted a conversation with the head of the CDC Foundation to inform and educate employees about the vaccine process.
DoorDash
DoorDash donated $1 million to community-based organizations in California to support vaccine outreach and participation in underserved communities. The company has also provided Dashers with numerous resources and information about COVID-19 and vaccine availability including helping them find their nearest vaccination location.
Facebook has connected over 2 billion people to authoritative COVID-19 information and is aiming to help bring 50 million people one step closer to getting vaccinated. The company has also opened its California headquarters as a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for neighboring underserved communities and is supporting pop-up vaccine clinics in underserved communities across the state. Facebook is also offering time-off benefits to encourage employees to get vaccinated and offering free backup child care if employees need care support for their children when getting or after receiving the vaccine.
Google and YouTube have made it easier to learn where you can get immunized and to Get the Facts about COVID-19 vaccines. On May 1, the company ran a Doodle on Google’s homepage to raise awareness for vaccinations. Google Maps also now has a feature on their homepage to help users find a COVID vaccine near them. YouTube is also partnering with the Vaccine Confidence Project to encourage people to get informed about COVID-19 vaccines to Get Back to What You Love. YouTube’s campaign is to help reduce hesitancy about the COVID-19 vaccine, particularly among those ages 18-34. In addition, Alphabet is offering COVID-19 vaccine clinics to employees and their dependents, interns, apprentices, and members of their extended workforce. The company is working to offer these clinics when the available vaccine supply in a site can already fully support the eligible individuals in the local community.
Gopuff
Gopuff donated $1 million to front-line health care workers, including direct funds for local vaccination programs in Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Houston, Phoenix, Chicago, and Atlanta. The company also provided continuous COVID-19 vaccination information for its front-line employees and delivery partners.
Grubhub
Grubhub is ensuring all delivery partners who wish to be vaccinated can do so without losing pay. The company is providing four hours of pay for all delivery partners who have made 30 deliveries in the past 30 days.
Honeywell
Honeywell partnered with organizations in Charlotte, N.C. to distribute 1 million vaccines by July 4.
HPE
HPE is accelerating vaccine research for COVID-19 with high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.
Instacart
Instacart provided eligible shoppers on the platform $25 so they wouldn’t have to choose between earning income and getting vaccinated.
Lyft
Lyft, in partnership with the White House, is providing free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites until July 4. Lyft is also mobilizing partners and community members to help provide access to 60 million rides to and from vaccine appointments.
Oracle
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is using Oracle’s National Electronic Health Records Cloud plus Oracle’s Public Health Management Applications Suite to manage the COVID-19 vaccination program throughout the United States.
PayPal
PayPal joined with Uber and Walgreens to raise money to provide access to vaccine appointments for underserved communities. To date, the initiative has raised more than $11.5 million to provide free rides to vaccination sites for people in communities hit hardest by the pandemic.
Salesforce
Salesforce is helping more than 150 organizations globally for vaccine management and COVID-19 tracking including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, Piedmont Healthcare, and Ochsner Health. To date, more than 50 million vaccines have been delivered through the Salesforce platform. Salesforce is also offering Paid Time Off for employees to obtain vaccination both for themselves and for family members.
Shipt
Shipt’s Vaccine Payment Program allows active shoppers to apply for up to $50 in stipends for receiving the coronavirus vaccine. With proof of vaccination, shoppers are eligible for a $25 stipend per dose. Shipt is also working with its headquarters team members to remove barriers to getting the vaccine during working hours. Hourly team members will be provided paid time off to cover their absence for receiving vaccine doses.
Teladoc Health
Teladoc Health provides its physicians and chronic care management coaches with information to share with members directly during general medical consults or coaching sessions on COVID-19 vaccine options. Teladoc Health physicians continue to leverage CDC guidelines to assess member vaccine status and address vaccine hesitancy. Teladoc Health has also provided in-product prompts that direct members to its COVID-19 vaccine FAQ which includes information about the vaccine development process and resources to find local vaccine eligibility requirements.
Uber
Uber, in partnership with the White House, is offering rides free of charge to 80,000 federally-designated vaccination sites across the U.S. Uber has also launched the Vaccine Access Fund, administered by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and created an in-app donation feature for consumers to donate a ride to vaccination appointments—through which consumers have donated more than $425,000 to date. Additionally, Uber has launched a number of in-app features, including creating a new tool to schedule vaccine appointments that links to a ride-scheduling feature. Beyond the national level, Uber has also put boots on the ground to ensure access to rides on the local level, forging partnerships with local churches and nonprofits to provide free rides in some of the hardest-hit communities across the country—including Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, and many others.