Enabling Global Innovation Our infrastructure has also been helping scientists gain and share knowledge of RNA viruses in record time. Diseases caused by RNA viruses include the common cold, influenza, SARS, COVID-19, hepatitis C, Ebola, rabies, polio, and measles. An international team of scientists from the Serratus project built a powerful supercomputer on AWS in just eight weeks. The supercomputer searched almost 6 million publicly available biological samples for the presence of RNA viruses in less than two weeks for $24,000—achieving what would have taken a standard computer well over 2,000 years and cost at least 10 times more. Through this process, the research team used the AWS Cloud to identify more than 130,000 new RNA viruses, including nine new coronaviruses, creating a “global viral surveillance system” that could help prevent future pandemics. A Helping Hand In early 2021, Amazon took immediate action to help address the COVID-19 surge in India. We utilized our global logistics network to purchase, airlift, and deliver medical equipment identified as critically needed by the government of India and local charities. We worked with industry partners and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to deliver more than 8,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 BiPAP machines to India. This medical equipment was donated to hospitals and public institutions to increase their capacity to help COVID-19-infected patients across multiple cities. We also joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Task Force on Pandemic Response to deliver ventilators to India. In Nepal, Amazon teamed up with the UN World Food Programme to donate and deliver supplies to communities affected by COVID-19, including 850,000 personal protective items. AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative The AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative (DDI) is a two-year, $20 million commitment to accelerate research and innovation to advance the collective understanding and detection of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in order to mitigate current and future outbreaks. In the first phase of the AWS DDI , AWS supported 87 organizations in 17 countries, ranging from nonprofits and research institutions to startups and large businesses. AWS awarded $8 million to support a range of diagnostic projects, including molecular tests for antibodies, antigens, and nucleic acids; diagnostic imaging; wearables; and data analytics tools that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect COVID-19. In April 2021, AWS launched the next phase and broadened the Initiative’s scope to three new areas: 1) early disease detection to identify outbreaks at the individual and at the community level; 2) prognosis to better understand disease trajectory; and 3) public health genomics to bolster viral genome sequencing worldwide. Helping Employees Get Back to Work When the time came for employees to start returning to corporate offices, we engaged with our teams to find out what kind of flexibility they needed to keep everyone safe, rather than specifying a one-size-fits-all approach for all business units. We encouraged leaders to determine how many days their team members would be in the office and which days those would be, so long as that decision was guided by what would be most effective for our customers and safest for our employees. Some teams continue working mostly remotely, others work a combination of remotely and in the office, and others work mostly in the office. Vaccine Support From March through early December 2021, we hosted more than 1,800 on-site vaccination events for front-line employees. We also launched the Max Your Vax sweepstakes to encourage our front-line operations employees to get vaccinated. We offered a variety of weekly prizes—including two $500,000 grand prizes, six $100,000 cash prizes, five new vehicles valued at $40,000 each, and five vacations each valued at $12,000 that included 40 hours of paid time off. Empowering Customers to Manage Health and Safety Throughout the pandemic, we have invested billions of dollars in the health and safety of our employees and customers, including building an in-house COVID-19 testing program to ensure front-line employees have access to free, regular testing in the U.S. and the UK. By January 2021, our national COVID-19 testing lab located in Kentucky processed more than 1 million COVID-19 tests for front-line employees from more than 700 testing sites, and provided access to COVID-19 testing to nearly all front -line employees. At the height of the pandemic, our labs were processing more than 30,000 tests each day. We took what we learned from this process to create our own at-home COVID-19 test collection kit for customers. The tests received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2021, providing an affordable, reliable, and convenient way for customers to test for COVID-19 at home. The kits are processed by Amazon’s in-house laboratory using the diagnostic approach recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Continuing Our COVID-19 Response Since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked nonstop to make hundreds of changes to our operational processes to protect the health of our employees and communities. In 2021, amid new variants and further lockdowns, we continued to invest heavily in supporting our employees, customers, and communities. Learn more about our global efforts to support customers, employees, and communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. $15B+ COVID-19-related costs incurred since the start of the pandemic to help keep employees safe while delivering for our customers 2021 Sustainability Report Introduction I Environment I Society I Governance I Appendix 7