Gothamist: How To Best Incentivize COVID-19 Vaccines—Outside Of Herd Immunity And Basic Survival

Precise messaging can decide whether the holdouts ultimately seek a COVID-19 shot. As immunization rates decline nationwide, elected leaders and health officials have rolled out a smorgasbord of incentives in recent weeks—from Shake Shack burgers in New York City to a pound of crawfish in New Orleans to $1 million lottery tickets in Ohio. “One of the reasons we tend to like those is they’re often more politically and publicly acceptable,” said Dr. Alison Buttenheim, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and scientific director for the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. “Common food, celebrated food, the local, regional specialty…what that does is evoke, ‘Hey, New Orleans, we’re in this together. This is going to be our vaccination effort.” Read more at Gothamist.