Amazon turns limitless ambition to ‘healthcare’
This year’s flu shot 36 pct effective
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 18, (AFP): Triumphant in online retail, cloud computing, organic groceries, and streaming television, Amazon founder and chief disruptor Jeff Bezos is turning his seemingly limitless ambition to health care.
Amazon, launched as an internet bookseller nearly 24 years ago, has branched into offerings including voice-commanded speakers infused with Alexa artificial intelligence and original TV shows streamed online at its Prime subscription service.
Healthcare now appears ripe for Bezos, who has earned a reputation for attacking high costs and inefficiencies.
A possible step in that direction was taken last month, with Amazon announcing an alliance with billionaire Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon to provide a health care system for employees of the three companies.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon would also like to become a supplier of medical equipment for hospitals.
“I think Bezos is methodical and thoughtful,” eMarketer senior analyst Patricia Orsini told AFP.
“He has identified a market that is ready for disruption. The healthcare system in the US is ripe for reform.”
Bezos faces the challenge of taming skyrocketing costs throughout US health care from insurance and medicine to supplies and therapy.
“Just as with every other industry Amazon has entered, Bezos is envisioning lowerpriced alternatives with frictionless services that could, over time, make a lot of money for Amazon,” Orsini said.
Barclays analysts said in a recent research note on Amazon’s potential in health care, “We are never dismissive of anything disruptive that Amazon is involved in. Amazon arguable has the best technical abilities of any company we cover.”
Amazon has been on a stunning growth streak of late, expanding its international retail operations as far as India and Australia, while devouring the US organic supermarket Whole Foods group.
With increased scale, it has been ramping up profits in recent quarters, helping Amazon leapfrog in market value to one of the top companies in the world and making Bezos the world’s richest individual with a net worth well over $100 billion.
Amazon has repeatedly shaken up sectors with technology and efficiency.
With success has come leverage to pressure suppliers and manufacturers for better deals it can use to be the preferred venue for online shopping.
Standard & Poor’s retail analyst Robert Shulz noted that Amazon has succeeded with a patient strategy of investing for the long term.
“Their approach is growing the business,” Shulz said, even if some of the efforts don’t yield a quick profit.
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This season’s flu shot was 36 percent effective overall, far less than the 2016-2017 vaccine but still worth getting because it can help ward off serious complications, US health officials said Thursday.
The interim report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was released in the final weeks of the current flu season, which has been the most active since the swine flu pandemic of 2009.
Last season’s flu vaccine was apparently better — 48 percent effective overall and 32 percent effective in the against the most common (A) H3N2 strain.