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WV Public Broadcasting: Vaccinations Continue To Fall Despite West Virginia’s COVID-19 Sweepstakes

From the WV Public Broadcasting: West Virginia and other states like Kentucky and Massachusetts are still doling out prizes. Dr. Kevin Volpp (Director of CHIBE) says to fairly assess how effective any state’s program is, you have to see what happens when the extra incentive goes away. “We really need to understand what is the effect of each of these programs, relative to what would have happened had the programs not been put in place,” Volpp said. West Virginia’s lottery is set to wrap on Aug. 4. Prizes will have been given out over the course of six weeks. But lotteries that start and end later than others are bound to show less results, said Katy Milkman, a behavioral scientist teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. “Frankly, there’s less low hanging fruit in terms of people who just haven’t gotten around to it,” Milkman said. “The longer you wait, the more you get into the hardline, ‘I’m really not interested’ or ‘I’m really against this’ group, and they’re harder to persuade. Read the full story in WV Public Broadcasting.