On Nov. 1, 2021, Louisiana’s Shot For $100 vaccination incentive was effective once again. In an initiative lasting until Nov. 30, the program awarded participants with a $100 Visa gift card after receiving either a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot.
I found out about Shot for $100 after reading a tweet that the incentive was available to LSU students getting vaccinated on campus. A few days later, I stopped by the Student Union to get my booster shot.
The process was remarkably simple—I walked in, filled out a form and got my shot. Then, I applied for the gift card and waited 15 minutes to check for side-effects. I left with a band-aid on my arm, $100 in my pocket and a lower chance of catching COVID.
After receiving my booster shot, I began to ponder the whole situation. What effect do financial incentives have on COVID-19 vaccination rates? Are there any moral implications of governments doing this?
Financial incentives for acts of goodwill are nothing new. Louisiana pays $25 a day for jury duty. Blood donation organizations like Vitalant use gift cards, coupons or raffle drawings to attract new blood donors. The government offers tax incentives to households and businesses that adhere to virtuous environmental policies. It also works in the other direction—higher taxes on products like alcohol and cigarettes are finally influencing the public to make better health decisions.
A reward of $100 seems like the perfect amount for a COVID-19 vaccine. The sum is enough to encourage people to go out of their way to get the shot, but it is not so large as to warrant anger from people who had already received their shots without a reward.
Getting a booster shot was not high on my priority list before discovering the Shot for $100 campaign. I hadn’t heard many people talk about the booster shot, and I didn’t know where it was being offered. Once I found out about the program, though, I looked into the benefits of getting a vaccine booster and realized that it made sense for me to get one. Seeing as the CDC has since emphasized that all adults should get a booster to fight the Omicron COVID-19 variant, my decision was timely.
As of Nov. 24, 2021, only 48% of Louisiana’s population has been vaccinated. To put this grueling pandemic behind us, more of the public needs their shots. The longer the pandemic goes on, the more our economy will suffer and the more the number of COVID-related deaths will grow.
Shot for $100 is a clever, benevolent public outreach campaign by the Louisiana Department of Health. Spreading awareness and availability of vaccinations is a virtuous and fruitful endeavor, and similar programs should be welcomed and supported.
Kathryn Craddock is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Patterson.
