Ohio Now Offering Lottery-Like Jackpots to Promote Vaccinations
Vaccine hesitation has been one of the most worrisome parts of the coronavirus pandemic of late, especially as we approach the next critical stage in our economic recovery.
You see, in America, there is a very real feeling that the government should not be able to mandate what it is that we decide to do with our bodies, and, more importantly, what we decide to put into our bodies. This is about personal sovereignty, and rightly so. After all, this is the land of the free.
That’s why the government has long avoided mandating vaccinations for the COVID-19 pandemic – it simply wouldn’t work, in all honesty, and there would be a massive revolt if they did choose to go down that path.
So, instead, officials are trying to entice citizens to be inoculated either by making the unvaccinated into second-class citizens, or by luring them in with cash and prizes like some two-bit gameshow.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has come up with an unorthodox incentive for Ohioans to get vaccinated.
Starting next Wednesday, adults who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and are at least 18 years old, may enter a lottery that will provide a $1 million prize each Wednesday for five weeks.
DeWine, a Republican, said the pool of names for the drawing will come from the Ohio Secretary of State’s publicly available voter registration database. Those who are not in the database can sign up for the drawings on a separate webpage, DeWine said.
Advertisement - story continues belowIn random drawings, the state will also provide five full four-year scholarships to an Ohio public university—including tuition, room-and-board, and books—to Ohioans under the age of 18 who have been vaccinated.
The Ohio Lottery will conduct the drawings, and the money will come from existing federal pandemic relief dollars, DeWine said.
The CDC also announced today that fully vaccinated individuals would not need to wear masks, outdoors or indoors, with the exception of when they are traveling.