Uber, Lyft Push Biden Team for Role in Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout
Ride-sharing companies seek early access to doses for workers, offer to take passengers to get their shots
Ride-sharing giants Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. are lobbying the incoming Biden administration for a role in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, offering to help get more Americans inoculated while seeking early access to doses for drivers.
Lyft executives met with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team in December, making the case for the incoming administration to allocate federal funds for vaccine-related transportation, said Megan Callahan, who leads Lyft’s healthcare business, a large provider of nonemergency medical transportation.
Lyft officials shared their analysis of public data with the Biden team on the millions of atrisk people who lack health-care transportation benefits or have limited public transportation due to coronavirus, she said.
Separately, Uber said Tuesday it is joining with vaccine maker Moderna Inc. to provide users with vaccine-safety information via the ride-sharing app.
The companies said they aim to work with public-health agencies to help those eligible for doses to schedule rides and receive reminder notifications.
The pandemic has weighed on ride-sharing companies as the spreading virus shut down restaurants and curbed social gatherings and travel. Ferrying people to vaccine sites could boost their business in the near term and may help kick-start a rollout that has gone more slowly than federal officials planned.
Both major ride-sharing companies have talked to public-health officials across the country about helping with appointment transport, according to people familiar with those discussions, and have publicly offered millions of free rides to and from vaccine-administration sites.
Ms. Callahan said state and municipal officials from heavily populated areas have been asking Lyft for free rides “because they do not have the funds.”
Lyft has talked to health systems, medical directors, pharmacy retailers and others that are concerned about transportation to vaccine sites, Ms. Callahan said.
“What we’ve come to understand is this is a really large problem from a logistics standpoint,” she said.
Ms. Callahan said Lyft plans to keep the Biden team informed of what it’s seeing in the field.
The talks with Biden officials preceded a partnership Lyft announced late last year to deliver vaccines to low-income, high-risk and uninsured people, she said.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Anthem Inc. and United Way are also part of that effort.
Around the same time, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote to Mr. Biden and Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris advocating for the prioritization of its drivers and delivery people and offering to help provide transport to vaccine sites and share information via its app, according to a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
“Transportation should never be a barrier to getting the Covid-19 vaccine,” said Julia Paige, head of social impact at Uber, adding that the company is exploring partnerships with governments, foundations, medical providers and businesses.
It has promised 10 million free rides to vaccine appointments.
Under the Trump administration, state and local public-health officials have wide latitude to give priority to who has access to doses. It is also up to those officials to figure out how to get the shots delivered to recipients.
Some are dispatching pharmacists or paramedics to congregate facilities and workplaces, while others prefer to establish central hubs and ask people to come to them at appointed times. The latter can be difficult for those without easy access to a vehicle or ride.
There are tens of millions of workers across the U.S. classified as essential in areas from agriculture to grocery stores to transit.
While those workers, including those from Uber and Lyft, are slated to receive the vaccine ahead of the broader public, it isn’t clear which industries will get access first in each state and plans across the country continue to evolve. That has led to companies jostling for priority.
Biden transition officials said the team is in “listening mode” when meeting with companies to learn what they are doing, whether on Covid19, the economy or other priorities.
The incoming administration doesn’t have the authority to make decisions on federal funding or other official government matters until Mr. Biden is inaugurated.
Mr. Biden’s team said Friday that he will seek to release nearly all available coronavirus vaccine doses to accelerate distribution, in a shift from the Trump administration’s policy of holding back stock for second doses.
They plan to establish federally run vaccination sites and mobile units that can travel to rural and underserved areas.
Lyft told employees in December that it plans to have updates in January and February about its Covid-19 work, including how it will execute and expand it in 2021, according to an internal memo reviewed by the Journal.
“The Covid-19 vaccine is the key to get us to the other side of the pandemic, and we have an opportunity to be the leader in helping communities across vaccination sites,” wrote Lyft President John Zimmer in the email.
The pandemic has led to a sharp decline in ridership for the two companies and put an end, for now, to shared or pooled rides as part of a raft of new safety measures that also include mandatory driver and passenger mask wearing. Uber’s food-delivery unit has fared better as more people order groceries.
Executives at both companies hope that having vaccinated drivers will give the public more confidence to ride again. Inoculating drivers could also keep more cars on the road as Covid-19 cases continue to surge.
The companies’ advocacy for vaccine access for drivers and delivery workers, which follows letters to state and federal officials, comes after they successfully persuaded California voters to pass a ballot measure last year that frees them and other ride-sharing and delivery companies from having to provide benefits such as paid sick leave.
The law allows them to treat drivers and delivery workers as freelancers, not employees, though they have promised to provide some supplemental benefits.