West Virginia to offer money incentive to get vaccinated

[Tanuki]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/27/west-virginia-vaccine-savings-bonds/#click=https://t.co/We7LS1db2j

"West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) told his staff last week he wanted every idea they had. It didn’t matter how crazy or outside-the-box their proposals were. Justice was growing desperate to find some way of persuading his residents to get the coronavirus vaccine.

It wasn’t until days later that the wildest proposition of all popped into Justice’s head: give young people a $100 savings bond if they get vaccinated.

West Virginia was about to receive federal pandemic funding for testing, protective equipment and economic relief. Why not just take some of that money and offer it directly to people to line up for their shots?

“It would be such a drop in the bucket compared to the ungodly amount of money we’re spending right now,” Justice said in a phone interview Tuesday.

At a meeting Friday with health officials, the governor started furiously jotting down numbers, doing back-of-the-envelope arithmetic on what it would cost to pay $100 to every person between the ages of 16 to 35 — one of the demographics most resistant to vaccination — who gets the shot. The total bill: Roughly $27.5 million.

In the past year alone, Justice said, West Virginia has spent $75 million to test people over and over for the coronavirus.

Justice said he knows there will be some who criticize his plan. “But if I’m able to pull this off and we are able to shut this down for the small price of $27.5 million … I would tell those critics to kiss my butt.”....(more)