Google Pledges More Than $2.5M For COVID-19 Vaccine Initiatives: Bloomberg

Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Google has announced $250 million in advertising grants for pro-vaccination groups to sponsor over 2.5 billion vaccine-related public service announcements, Bloomberg reports.
Google’s vaccine-focused charity partner, Gavi, will fund 250,000 shots for low and middle-income countries. Google also pledged $2.5 million for pop-up vaccination sites and associated efforts in Black, Latino and rural U.S. communities.
The search engine giant has hired former Obama official Karen DeSalvo and other medical experts for a new health division.
The company has customized search results for online queries regarding the COVID-19 virus and added vaccination locations in Google Maps.
It committed $800 million in pandemic relief for frontline workers and ad credits for health organizations in March 2020.
However, Google’s YouTube has faced flak for streaming videos doubting COVID-19 vaccines. Google’s contact-tracing efforts have remained mostly unused by governments.
Alphabet health unit, Verily-led COVID-19 testing project concluded in less than a year California.
Price action: GOOG shares traded higher by 1.99% at $2,299.73 on the last check Thursday.