Get vaccinated and get $50? Texans like that idea. Tarrant leaders will consider it
What’s the best way to get you and your family vaccinated today?
A federal order?
Or $50 each?
In Texas, money talks. So Tarrant County leaders will discuss Tuesday whether to follow other counties’ success and reward $50 gift cards for completing the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine.
It’s still only an idea here. But it’s working elsewhere in Texas.
The $50 payments would draw thousands more residents for essential vaccinations — maybe more effectively than the federal workplace safety requirements announced last week.
“If you offer an incentive, you give people encouragement,” County Judge Glen Whitley said.
He lives in Hurst, where less than half the city is vaccinated. And in some older or outlying Tarrant County cities and neighborhoods, it’s closer to only one-third.
“Say you’ve got a family of three — that’s $150,” he said. “You can buy a little something with that. I think we can reach more people.”
This plan isn’t a direct response to the federal workplace order that President Joe Biden announced Thursday. County officials were already talking about the payments.
They’ll need to figure out how to arrange for the gift cards, along with exactly where to provide the shots, how much to pay and whether to include the forthcoming booster round.
States. counties and cities nationwide have tried different incentive programs.
Some were helpful.
Some were ridiculous.
The worst idea so far has been to offer lottery tickets. Residents of Washington state were given lottery tickets offering a “Shot of a Lifetime,” reducing miracle vaccines to tawdry prizes.
Some of the advertising campaigns for vaccine bonuses are absurd, too.
There’s “Get Green for Vaccine,” or Michigan’s “New Side Effect of COVID-19 Vaccine,” showing a wad of money.
But the payment plans themselves seem to work.
In a study from the University of California, Los Angeles, 31% of unvaccinated adults said they would be more likely to get vaccinated for $50. Another 17% didn’t like the idea and said they’d be less likely, but that’s still a net 14 percentage point gain.
In Houston, a county program offering a $100 gift card resulted in 34,000 new vaccinations in two weeks. That raised the percentage of vaccinated residents past 62%.
In Austin, the city is offering $50 H-E-B grocery gift cards. The county’s vaccination rate is 68%.
Compare those numbers to Tarrant County’s vaccination rate: 56%.
New numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that unvaccinated Americans are five times more likely to contract COVID-19 but 10 times more likely to die or be hospitalized, with the prospect of long-haul symptoms.
A vaccine for children younger than 12 is still weeks away, but children in less vaccinated states are four times more likely to be hospitalized than those in more protected areas.
Think of it this way:
▪ You get vaccinated.
▪ You get $50.
▪ And you just might save your life.
