Amazon: Coronavirus Tests So Hard To Get We’re Building Our Own Lab

Amazon is building its own testing labs to keep its warehouses and distribution centers open during the Coronavirus shutdown, the company announced last night.

That’s functionality every company in America needs to re-open its doors.

While Amazon has made over 150 process changes at Amazon locations around the world, the company’s front-line shipping workers keep coming down with COVID-19. Staff in at least ten U.S.-based Amazon distribution centers have tested positive, threatening to shut down the physical-goods side of the company.

And like many others have recently experienced, Amazon can’t get the testing it needs:

Unfortunately, today we live in a world of scarcity where COVID-19 testing is heavily rationed.

Shutting down the massive Amazon distribution system would be a disaster for tens of millions globally. The company runs more than 175 fulfillment centers with over 150 million square feet of space, including 110 just in North America. And while Amazon was the poster child for the retail apocalypse as little as a few months ago, it’s now an essential component of a socially-distanced supply chain that many who are sheltering in place rely on for delivery of essentials.

So shutting down is not an option.

But putting low-wage manual labor workers at risk of their lives so the rest of us can enjoy our Amazon Prime one-day shipping is not an option either. (Or, it should not be.)

Amazon thinks the answer is rapid and continuous testing.

“If every person, including people with no symptoms, could be tested regularly, it would make a huge difference in how we are all fighting this virus,” a company representative wrote in a blog post. “Those who test positive could be quarantined and cared for, and everyone who tests negative could re-enter the economy with confidence.”

Since it can’t get the tests it needs at scale, Amazon is deciding whether it should do the job itself. The company has started building a lab and “hopes” to start testing employees “soon.”

Interestingly, this is exactly the strategy that Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore are using to keep their economies open, and exactly what every company needs right now.

But it’s also something that you would hope could be done on a larger scale.

“Kudos to Amazon for developing its own antigen testing for the virus to create a safer environment for its workers,” says Georgetown university professor Hal Singer. “But there’s no reason why the costs of testing should fall on private companies, or be exclusive to the richest companies in America.”

Without access to the same funds, personnel, or technology, coffee shops, mom and pop stores, and local restaurants cannot do the same, Singer adds. The end result will be to give massive companies like Amazon even more power in our emerging AC (After Coronavirus) economy.

Unfortunately, at this point, we need additional testing capacity wherever it comes from. Not everyone can work from home, and lives are at stake from joblessness and lack of income as well as from COVID-19.

The good news is that Amazon is willing to share.

“We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant timeframe, but we think it’s worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn with others.”