AMAZON expertise & cash pro Covid 19

Shipping behemoth Amazon is increasingly throwing its weight into the pandemic response, sharing its staff’s web and research design expertise with scientists across the country and digging into its deep pockets to fund and shape a smattering of Covid-19 studies and projects.

The company is backing a wide range of efforts, from funding a clinical trial of blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to delivering at-home coronavirus tests to health workers and others in the U.K. Much of Amazon’s work is focused on people at a high risk of being exposed to the virus, such as delivery drivers, grocery store staff, and health care workers — all roles that exist within Amazon and its subsidiaries.

Many of the projects won’t bear fruit for the next several months, or even years. And Amazon’s multimillion-dollar investments in scientific research could come across as cold comfort to workers at its shipment facilities, many of whom have been calling for basic safety precautions since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March. Earlier this week, a worker at Amazon’s Staten Island, N.Y., fulfillment center died from Covid-19.(Más)