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intrepidity

(7,240 posts)
Fri May 14, 2021, 11:08 AM May 2021

The Atlantic: Put Anthony Fauci in a Dunk Tank

Tongue-in-cheek (is it, though?), but this approach has merit, imho. And Fauci seems like such a good sport that he just might do it!

The article makes a compelling case for a very unconventional approach to our public health crisis: "harnessing vulgar populism."

My favorite quote from the piece: "Vaccine hesitancy and lottery enthusiasm are two sides of the same disregard for statistics." Brilliant!

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/vaccination-cash-lottery-tickets-americans/618882/

The three populist pillars of a new approach to vaccinating America: Beer, bacon, and lottery tickets.

Imagine a Fourth of July 2021 celebration at the White House. America has reached its vaccination goals. A jubilant President Joe Biden rips off his mask, douses it in lighter fluid, and tosses it on a charcoal grill, where it burns for the news cameras. Late afternoon turns to early evening, with the promise of fireworks ahead, but before then, Anthony Fauci, outfitted in goggles and a vintage one-piece, red-white-and-blue-striped bathing suit, climbs into a dunk tank filled with Bud Light. He’s making good on a promise to get dunked on Independence Day if, and only if, 75 percent of Americans have received at least one COVID-19 shot. Joe Rogan strides out, a big bucket of baseballs in hand.

(snip)

The typical American has a sense that public-health types want them to eat less salty, fatty processed meat. How powerful, then, if the message from the most dour public-health bureaucrat in each city was “I’m loath to think of you eating a Baconator at Wendy’s, but getting a COVID-19 vaccine is so important that we’ll give you a coupon for a free one if you get your jab before July 4.”

(snip)

Free lottery tickets may hold the most promise of all. Vaccine hesitancy and lottery enthusiasm are two sides of the same disregard for statistics. How better to reach people unswayed by expert advice on what is statistically likely to serve their interests than to offer a minuscule chance at $100 million?

(snip)

Cash. Beer. Bacon. Lottery tickets. And the promise of Fauci in the dunk tank. That’s all it would take. I can see it so clearly. Pandemic Victory Day would be both a celebration and a spur to additional shots, harnessing vulgar populism to help America surprise the world with its 90-plus percent vaccination rate, even as it exports greater numbers of doses daily to poorer countries in need of help.

By embracing that which they find distasteful, elites can prove that they aren’t just virtue signaling. This really matters.


ETA: Laurie Garrett's tweet illustrates this well:

"Pitting one public health problem against another.
Want to get more Americans vaccinated against #COVID19 ?
Use gambling, alcohol or high-fat meat as lures.
What's next? Cartons of cigarettes?"

https://mobile.twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/status/1393212543263559681

Yes, Laurie, yes!!


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The Atlantic: Put Anthony Fauci in a Dunk Tank (Original Post) intrepidity May 2021 OP
If I may, upon getting vaccinated you are Phoenix61 May 2021 #1

Phoenix61

(16,949 posts)
1. If I may, upon getting vaccinated you are
Fri May 14, 2021, 11:22 AM
May 2021

entered in a lottery to be the one to throw the first 3 balls at the Fauci dunk tank. You know they’d just eat that up. They could claim they are only getting the vaccine to get back at Fauci. Like the students in high-school wanting to dunk the principal.

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