Republican Gov. Mike DeWine offered citizens in Ohio the chance to be entered into a weekly lottery worth a staggering $1 million after lamenting the roughly 67 percent of Ohioans who hadn’t been fully vaccinated by mid-May.
Prior to DeWine’s announcement, Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) promised “a $100 savings bond to every single one [aged 16 to 35] that steps up and takes the vaccine.” The effort to encourage widespread uptake of the jab is aimed mostly towards the young in West Virginia, a demographic that Justice decried as not taking the shot “as fast as we’d like them to take them … we’ve got to do something about this.”
In like manner, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) offered New Yorkers a free lottery ticket (usually worth $20) with a $5 million jackpot in exchange for presenting themselves for a COVID jab between May 24 and 28. “If you were undecided or dubious about getting a vaccine, now you have an added bonus. Don’t miss this chance,” Cuomo said, according to an ABC News report.
Though the list of incentives offered in states nationwide grows, the FDA clearly stipulates against coercion, stating that each vaccine is “an investigational vaccine not licensed for any indication,” and the agency requires that all “promotional material relating to the COVID-19 Vaccine clearly and conspicuously … state that this product has not been approved or licensed by the FDA, but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA.”
On account of this, federal law states that “to protect public health,” all manufacturers of products authorized for emergency use are required to provide “[a]ppropriate conditions designed to ensure that individuals to whom the product is administered are informed … of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.”