Google CEO Sundar Pichai, on 25 January, in a blog post, announced that the company would be providing $150 million to promote COVID-19 vaccine education and make information related to vaccination more equitably accessible to the public. The company will expand Google Search and Maps to make it easier for people to find when and where to get the COVID-19 vaccine at a local level. Pichai added that Google would be opening up its select physical spaces to be used as COVID-19 vaccine sites.
“We recognize that getting vaccines to people is a complex problem to solve, and we’re committed to doing our part. Today we’re announcing that we’re providing more than $150 million to promote vaccine education and equitable distribution and making it easier to find locally relevant information, including when and where to get the vaccine. We’ll also be opening up Google spaces to serve as vaccination sites as needed,” stated Google in the official release.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve helped more than 100 government agencies and global non-governmental organizations run critical public service health announcements through our Ad Grants Crisis Relief program. Today, we’re announcing an additional $100 million in ad grants for the CDC Foundation, the World Health Organization, and nonprofits worldwide. We’ll invest another $50 million in partnership with public health agencies to reach underserved communities with vaccine-related content and information,” it added.