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Amazon Is Really Interested in the Blood of Covid-19 Patients
The company is backing scientific efforts that could make its warehouses safer
In early February, infectious disease expert Ian Lipkin got a call from Amazon. The Columbia University virologist, who was an adviser on the 2011 outbreak thriller Contagion, was in China to investigate the newly emerging coronavirus.
Amazon asked Lipkin if he could help the tech company reduce the risk of infection to their workers and customers. The first U.S. case of Covid-19 had just been detected in Seattle, where Amazon’s headquarters is located, at the end of January.
“I talked with them about ways in which they could contribute to the science around preventing, treating, and recognizing Covid,” Lipkin tells OneZero. Before then, he never had any contact with Amazon, except as an occasional customer. To him, the company’s interest in the science of the coronavirus made perfect sense. “Obviously, they want to do everything they can to promote public health and to ensure the safety of their employees, their products, and their customers,” he says.
In response to the pandemic, the tech behemoth is funding research into a potential Covid-19 treatment, developing its own testing capabilities, and backing a study on immunity. The…
