Local Health Officials Discussing Vaccine Incentives-Here’s Some Ideas

Recently, it was announced that CVS Pharmacy is now offering a sweepstakes with cash and trip prizes. In Minnesota, they're offering free fishing licenses and fair tickets. In Ohio, they're going BIG. According to the AP, "a southwestern Ohio woman won the state’s first $1 million Vax-a-Million vaccination incentive prize, while a Dayton-area teen was awarded the first full-ride college scholarship offered by the program."

What would it take to convince you to get vaccinated?

If we're going to go off the "political deep end", which this shouldn't be about that, it should be more about personal health choices, but I digress. Anyway, I know some people would say, "I wouldn't get the vaccine even for a million dollars". In complete disclosure, I struggle with this topic, but in the end, it's your body, and you should be able to research the topic and make an educated well thought out choice.

That being said, the Black Hawk County Health Department may not be offering a one million dollar lottery, but they are adamant about getting all Black Hawk County residents vaccinated against Covid-19. According to KCRG, "the Black Hawk County Board of Health unanimously approved spending $10,000 from a private fund to offer incentives for people to get the COVID-19 vaccination."  As the article mentions, "they have not identified what those incentives will look like yet or the timeline of when it will start."  

"We've hit a wall with vaccination rates. It's going much slower than we'd like, and we're trying to be as creative as possible." said Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye, Public Health Director in Black Hawk County.

 

Some ideas for local incentives

Never say, I'm not here to help. They have $10,000 to work with, so let's spread that around to more than one person. The possibilities are endless. How about a bunch of $50 gift cards to any of the local breweries and restaurants? I could easily spend a $50 gift card at Scheels. Everybody could use free gas, how about some gas station gift cards? Of course, Walmart and Target gift cards would be good...or just straight cash always works!

Black Hawk County vaccine clinics

For a complete list of Covid-19 vaccination clinics or places to schedule an appointment in Black Hawk County click here. But, maybe wait a week, and see if you can win a prize.

Should vaccine incentives even have to be offered?

Finally, you could debate why do we have to bribe people to get their vaccine shot? And why do they get rewarded? 41.8% of Black Hawk County residents followed the advice of the CDC experts and got the shot. How come we don't get a prize? Just sayin'.