As demand for COVID vaccines among adults falls short of public health officials’ goals, more and more states and businesses are rolling out incentives to counter “vaccine hesitancy.”
Article from Children’s Health Defense.
This week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine raised the stakes to a whole new level when he announced Ohio will give five people $1 million each, plus another five people four-year college scholarships in a lottery scheme designed to persuade young Ohioans to get the COVID vaccine.
Some Ohio lawmakers criticized DeWine’s plan, saying there were better ways to spend the state’s COVID relief funds. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he wasn’t sure the plan was legal, but even if it is, “just because a thing may be legally done does not mean it should be done.”
✔️ Boost your immune system with Nutraceutical by Dr. Zev Zelenko
✔️ Beat supply chain issues and future pharmaceutical tyranny with 5 Antibiotics Delivered to Your Home
✔️ Be ready to help yourself and your family with the World’s Best Med Kit
Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense president and general counsel, agreed with Yost, though for reasons having nothing to do with state budgets.
Holland said:
“It is not explicitly illegal for governments and corporations to offer incentives for an unapproved medical procedure, such as the Emergency Use Authorization COVID vaccines. Nonetheless, incentives like the Ohio lottery violate the underlying principle of informed consent, which requires that there be no deceit or overreaching and that subjects fully understand the medical decision they are making.”
Holland said she doubts the “people impoverished after a year of lockdowns and lining up for these incentive programs understand that these products are unlicensed and unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and that they have already resulted in reports of more than 4,000 deaths and more than 190,000 adverse events.”
The Defender first reported on the “murky ethics” of paying people to get the COVID vaccine in January. Since then, more and more businesses, colleges, and local and state governments have rolled out everything from free donuts, beer and baseball tickets, to $50 debit cards, $100 gift cards and $100 savings bonds.
Even before Ohio’s plan to let 12 to 17-year olds who get vaccinated enter a lottery to win a free ride to one of the state’s universities, colleges still undecided about trying to mandate the vaccines were offering an array of enticements, causing some to question the ethics of using cash and gifts to influence people’s decisions about a medical intervention.
Last month, Erin Bronchetti, associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and co-author of a study on using cash to persuade college students to get the flu vaccine, told Inside Higher Ed she didn’t have a problem with the use of smaller incentives to motivate students who aren’t getting vaccinated because of time constraints.
But for larger incentives, Bronchetti cautioned universities to consider that low-income students could be swayed to make a medical decision they would not otherwise, which is more ethically questionable.
Bronchetti said:
“We might want to be aware of the fact that low-income students or students who are cash-strapped are more sensitive or responsive to these financial incentives, so to the extent that we’d be influencing behavior, it might be on those particular subgroups to a larger extent.”
Brochetti said campus leaders need “to strike a balance between what will move behavior, what will cause people to overcome particularly those biases like procrastination or a little bit of uncertainty … while not offering an incentive that’s so large as to feel coercive.”
Below are just a few of the perks people can get for showing proof of vaccination:
- Full-time students at Rowan University in New Jersey who show proof of vaccination will score a $500 credit towards their fall courses; students living on campus will get another $500 credit toward housing.
- West Virginia said it will give $100 savings bonds to people aged 16-35 who get the shot.
- The city of Detroit announced it will give $50 gift cards to anyone who convinces or escorts a fellow citizen to get vaccinated.
- Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts to anyone who’s had at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.
- Budweiser is giving away $5 virtual debit cards to the first 10,000 people who show their vaccine status.
- White Castle is giving away free desserts until the end of May for the vaccinated.
- Cincinnati Reds fans can get view-level tickets for $10 when they show proof of one COVID vaccine dose.
- Kentucky is offering free lottery tickets.
- Indiana vaccine sites are giving away free Girl Scout cookies.
Reasons for not getting the vaccine vary
A CNN poll taken last month found 26% of U.S. adults will not get the shot. There are a number of reasons people say they don’t want the COVID vaccine.
A survey conducted by the Delphi Group at Carnegie Mellon University, in partnership with Facebook, found 45% of people hesitant about getting the vaccine feared side effects, and 40% were concerned about vaccine safety.
Vaccine safety is at the forefront of many people’s minds. The latest data show that between Dec. 14, 2020 and May 7, a total of 192,954 total adverse events were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, including 4,057 deaths.
Some who are hesitant or unwilling to get the COVID vaccine said they don’t trust vaccines, while others said they doubted whether or not they work. And some people are declining the vaccine because they don’t believe they need it, according to the Delph Group survey.
A 45-year-old woman from Milwaukee declined the COVID shot when her doctor’s office called to see if she was interested in getting it. “Everyone’s body must be exposed to germs in order to build immunity to them,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Otherwise, we would all be sick all the time.”
Young people are also on record as being uninterested in the COVID vaccine. An NBC LX/Morning Consult survey found 26% of Generation Z adults would not get the shot.
© 2021 Children’s Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children’s Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children’s Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.
Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker
All ORIGINAL content on this site is © 2021 NOQ Report. All REPUBLISHED content has received direct or implied permission for reproduction.
With that said, our content may be reproduced and distributed as long as it has a link to the original source and the author is credited prominently. We don’t mind you using our content as long as you help out by giving us credit with a prominent link. If you feel like giving us a tip for the content, we will not object!
JD Rucker – EIC
@jdrucker