Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a “Shot for 100″ program on August 13 that would pay out $100 in Visa cards to the first 75,000 college students in Louisiana who got vaccinated. The 7.5-million-dollar program was designed to boost vaccination rates amongst 18 to 29 year-olds. At LSU, many students reported they were motivated by the program to get vaccinated sooner. 
LSU has several vaccination and testing sites on campus, operated by National Guard members. Private First Class Calhoun, one of the National Guard members administering vaccines on LSU’s campus, said throughout his duties at the vaccination site, he has noticed students were motivated by the program.
“People are taking it seriously, obviously you get a free $100 to do whatever you want with it. I feel like it’s not the main cause of people coming to get vaccinated but it’s kind of a sweetener on top.” 
It seems that this program has been mainly effective in encouraging people who planned to get vaccinated to do so sooner.
Computer Science Sophomore Calvin Feldt, who recently participated in the program, said although he planned to eventually get vaccinated, he kept pushing it off until he learned of the $100 incentive. 
“I wanted it, but I just never pulled the trigger and I eventually decided that I’m gonna wait until it’s FDA approved, but then I saw that and I was like well I’m either gonna wait a couple weeks and not get a $100, or I go now and get $100 so I was like you know what, why not,” Feldt said. 
Mechanical Engineering Freshman Ryan Mount said he’s planning on getting his COVID vaccine soon, due in part to the program’s encouragement. 
“The program is like another good incentive to all LSU students, it’s easy access and you get a reward for getting vaccinated,” Mount said. 
It’s unclear how effective this will be in motivating people who refuse to get vaccinated to do so. So far, it has had quite a bit of success in encouraging those open to the vaccine to get it sooner.
Louisiana is currently in the grips of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant. Restrictions and mask mandates have been re-introduced. It’s hoped that as more people get vaccinated these restrictions can be eased, which is the motivation behind these incentive programs.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that the vaccines are between 75% and 95% able to prevent hospitalizations from COVID-19. Unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than unvaccinated people, according to the CDC.