Facebook will convert part of its headquarters into a vaccination site for underserved communities
- Facebook is converting part of its headquarters into a COVID-19 vaccination site.
- The vaccination site is intended for "underserved, hard-hit communities," COO Sheryl Sandberg said.
- Californians over the age of 16 are eligible to be vaccinated starting on April 15.
Part of Facebook's sprawling Menlo Park, California, campus is being converted into a COVID-19 vaccine site.
"We're partnering with Ravenswood Family Health Network to convert part of our headquarters into a vaccination site for hard-hit communities," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said on Friday morning on her Facebook page. "We're also teaming up with the State of California and local nonprofits to support mobile vaccination clinics in four of the state's hardest hit regions."
Beyond just serving as a vaccination site, Sandberg said the goal is to help people in "underserved" communities get vaccinated. Early in the vaccine rollout, people in wealthy ZIP codes had been more likely to get a vaccine than those in poorer areas, Insider's Hillary Hoffower reported.
And an Insider analysis in January of vaccine distribution found that most vaccines were going to white communities, despite Black people and other racial and ethnic minorities in the US being the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sandberg urged her Facebook followers to, "get vaccinated once they're eligible...so we can bring an end to the pandemic."
Facebook employees, like so many office staff around the world, have been working remotely since March 2020. The company is allowing remote work until at least July 2021.
The State of California, where Facebook is based, has said that vaccine eligibility for anyone over 16 years of age will open starting on April 15.
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