Google CEO pledges $150 million in COVID-19 Fight
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced early last week on Twitter that the U.S.-based tech mammoth Google will be “providing more than $150 million to promote vaccine education and equitable distribution and making it easier to find locally relevant information.”
Pichai also added that Google spaces were to serve as vaccination sites.
The search engine exec poured out a detailed blog post in which he highlighted one of Google’s fundamental roles throughout the pandemic – providing trusted information to all matters COVID related and how Google will be making a difference.
Of the $150 million, two-thirds will be allocated in add grants to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and non-profits around the globe. While the other $50 million will be channeled into partnerships with public health agencies that work with underserved communities.
When the pandemic first broke out, Google rolled up their sleeves and began crafting pandemic tech solutions; starting with the $170 million Grow with Google Small Business Fund where more than $53 million have been granted to help struggling and underserved small businesses owned by women or minorities.
Add to that the all the efforts that the Google CEO and his fleet are doing when it comes to helping people make informed and safer decisions.
By taking a micro-solution approach, they added COVID-19 Layer – a feature that reveals critical information of a specific area and how it is trending. And for the macro-solution; COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports – a nifty report created with aggregated, anonymized sets of data from users that have enabled the location history that displays the change in visits to places such as grocery stores and parks.
Tech rivals Apple also collaborated with Google on the Exposure Notification technology, an API that can enable apps created by public health agencies to work seamlessly between iPhone and Android ecosystems.
The news comes following rival tech giant’s move in working with the U.S. on dispatching vaccine treatments; this should come as no surprise as the Google CEO and other tech leaders have a tremendous responsibility to bear when it comes to treating the pandemic with technology.