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Free beer for vaccination - here at an action in Washington
Photo:
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
In the beginning there was the donut, then came the free beer and the joint, now the prospect of a million dollars beckons.
This Wednesday at 7:29 p.m. Ohio announces the first winner of its "Vax-a-Million" lottery.
Every adult citizen of the state is entitled to profit as long as they meet one requirement: They must be vaccinated against Corona.
While many in Europe are still longingly waiting for the shot in the upper arm, the situation has reversed in the USA: there is enough vaccine, but too few Americans who want it.
At the beginning of April, over four million doses were vaccinated in a single day, but by the middle of last week the number was just over a million.
Experts warn that the herd immunity goal will fail.
37 percent of Americans were reluctant to get vaccinated, according to a March poll.
13 percent categorically rejected it.
In order to change the mind of the doubters, corporations and politicians in the heartland of capitalism have come up with the obvious solution: monetary motivation.
It all started with the Krispy Kreme curling chain: Those who have been vaccinated can pick up an »Original Glazed® donut« there - every day until the end of the year.
Critics complain that this replaces the corona risk with that of obesity.
The governor of New Jersey tried to speed up the vaccination rate with a "shot and a beer" program.
Many breweries were happy to take part in the PR campaign.
In Maine, citizens could choose between a hunting or fishing license or a ticket to a baseball game, among other things.
In New York's Union Square Park, activists distributed joints for jabs to vaccinated adults.
The state recently legalized cannabis use.
The abundance of rewards is now so great that websites like people.com are creating hit lists. But everything was trivial until the governor of West Virginia took the decisive step: Jim Justice decided to reward young people who get vaccinated with a $ 100 government bond, retrospectively. The Republican put the cost of the action at $ 27.5 million - paid for from the Biden government's corona aid package in Washington. The critics “can do me,” explains the politician and entrepreneur, whom the creeping decline of the coal industry has robbed of his position as a billionaire. In the past year alone, West Virginia spent $ 75 million on corona testing, Justice said. If the money rewards were used to stop the pandemic, it would pay off for the state.
It wasn't long before other politicians succumbed to the charm of the lottery idea.
While Ohio goes all out and pays out five times a million dollars to each winner, Maryland is betting on less money for more citizens: 40 times $ 40,000 plus a grand prize of $ 400,000.
"Get the syringe for your chance of winning," says country man Larry Hogan, heating up the mood.
His ailing New York colleague Andrew Cuomo is handing out scratch cards.
The democratically governed state of Oregon jumped on the bandwagon.
more on the subject
Evangelicals and Republicans: How Vaccine Skeptics Endanger the Comeback of the US Economy By Ines Zöttl, Washington
Incentive to herd immunity: A hundred for everyone who gets vaccinatedA column by Thomas Fricke
US vaccination campaign: tindling for herd immunity
Corona vaccination: The darned second spade by Christoph Seidler
But will the real-time economic experiments really succeed?
Alison Buttenheim of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies behavioral economics in health care, isn't sure.
In general, the incentive effect of a lottery is greater than that of a (smaller) cash payment, she says.
Instead of $ 25 in hand, many people prefer the prospect of millions in profits - even if they will pretty much go away empty-handed.
In fact, the vaccination rate in Ohio has shot up by around 50 percent after the lottery announcement.
However, vaccination for children was also approved at the same time, which also increased the numbers.
"And we don't know whether people will go for the second vaccination," warns Buttenheim.
In a University of California poll, around a third of respondents said $ 100 in cash would increase their willingness to get vaccinated. But for at least 15 percent, the offer had the opposite effect: certainly not. Critics argue that distrust grows when people are paid for something that is in their own interest. And medical ethicists have other concerns, for example that the payments actually create a compulsory vaccination for those who need the money.
Buttenheim is not convinced by these counter-arguments. After all, it was accepted during the pandemic that many people had to keep going to work because they were dependent on their income. But she also sees another point of criticism: should America really pay its citizens to get vaccinated while large parts of the world do not have enough vaccine?