A group of businesses and nonprofit organizations are banding together to speed up and strengthen their companies’ response to the pandemic.
Five groups, including the Ad Council, CDC Foundation and the Business Roundtable, announced Thursday they are forming a new partnership called the Health Action Alliance. Its aim is to assist businesses of all sizes to “improve the health of employees and communities by promoting Covid-19 prevention and vaccine education.”
“The business community has an important role to play in sharing with employees and the broader communities where they operate the importance of vaccination to help defeat the pandemic and lead our country toward a robust economic recovery,” said Joshua Bolten, president and CEO of Business Roundtable, in a statement.
The Health Action Alliance cited a recent survey from Morning Consult, a private data intelligence firm, which found that 71% of American workers trust their employers to decide on when it’s best to return to work.
The alliance will provide resources to help, including developing vaccination policies and education programs, virtual events with health experts as well as tools to support “communities of color and other groups that may have unique concerns or questions about vaccines,” the release said.
Participating companies include Amazon, Apple, ViacomCBS, Target and Verizon, to name a few of the roughly two dozen involved.
Return-to-the-office policies can be a hodgepodge of different programs because of uncertainties surrounding the vaccines’ roll-out. For example, Google and Apple have said their employees wouldn’t return until this summer or perhaps the fall, while other companies, such as Twitter, will allow their workers work from home permanently.
Private companies are increasingly putting their marketing muscle behind vaccination education. Notably, Budweiser skipped airing an ad during the Super Bowl earlier this month and is putting the roughly $5 million cost of that spot toward an ad campaign and other initiatives promoting vaccination.
