Three states: Ohio, Maryland, and New York are now holding money lotteries to incentivize people to take the vaccine. Are we that selfish that many of us won't do something that is essential for the well-being of the country without a chance of getting money? There are many reasons for vaccine hesitancy but the bottom line is that there are many people who won't do the right thing unless they are paid or at least have a chance of hitting the jackpot.
I understand the reason for these three states using lotteries to get more people vaccinated. We have vaccines waiting to be used as the vaccination rate is dropping. About 20% of the people in this country say that they will refuse the vaccine. Since 75 to 80% of all people need to be vaccinated for the U.S. to reach herd immunity, it means we have to get practically everyone on the fence to buy in for herd immunity to occurred. So we have to get all those who does not object to getting vaccinated to get the jab. And they need to do it as quickly as possible before variants appear that make the vaccines less effective or ineffective altogether.
It is too bad we have to resort to these money give away in order to get some people to do what is a civic duty that also may save their lives. We should be ashamed that we are not taking advantage of the vaccines that we have. Many countries would love to have the vaccines that we don't use. We don't appreciate what we have here. Instead, look for other states to follow the lead of these three states in the coming weeks.
