Longmort Times-Call: Vaccinations fell 68% during Colorado’s weekly $1 million giveaways

From Longmort Times-Call: The number of weekly vaccinations in Colorado dropped by more than two-thirds between the start and end of the state’s vaccine lottery, following nearly the same trajectory set in the weeks before Gov. Jared Polis announced the $1 million drawings. While some states saw larger apparent benefits from their lotteries than Colorado, it’s difficult to prove prizes were the cause. Colorado expanded its partnerships to reach rural and underserved communities at roughly the same time it announced the drawings, and the other states offering lotteries most likely also took other steps. It’s reasonable for states to use lotteries to nudge people who aren’t opposed to getting the vaccine but haven’t done it yet, particularly since the prize money is a relatively small percentage of what they’re spending on COVID-19 response, said Iwan Barankay, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied how incentives affect health behavior. Read the full story in the Longmort Times-Call.