Ethical Concerns Don’t Stop Pima County From Luring Unvaccinated With Chance Of $10,000 Lottery Grand Prize

Despite the fact that there are serious ethical concerns with incentivizing vaccinations, the Pima County Health Department has decided to offer incentives at most of the County-affiliated vaccination sites through June, including up to 100 Arizona Lottery $2 scratcher tickets per day.

As one of the poorest metropolitan areas in the country, the residents of Pima County have been among the hardest hit financially by the forced COVID-19 related shutdowns. County officials also imposed some of the most restrictive policies on businesses in the state including curfews which devastated small businesses.

“…there is a genuine ethical concern about the influence of such an incentive on decision-making. Offering payment as an incentive for COVID-19 vaccination may be seen as unfairly taking advantage of those US residents who have lost jobs, experienced food and housing insecurity, or slipped into poverty during the pandemic. COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the substantial inadequacies of the social safety net in the US. As individuals and families struggle, some people might feel they must accept a vaccine in order to, for example, purchase food or pay rent.” – JAMA Network

Pima County’s Lottery ticket scheme is part of a larger national effort to enlist businesses to offer incentives to help boost vaccination numbers. The lottery tickets, which have a maximum grand prize of $10,000 and numerous smaller cash prizes, will be given to anyone getting their first dose of a two-dose vaccine, or who get the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The possibility of a $10,000 prize may be too much for desperate people to ignore.

From Friday through Sunday, Casino del Sol is hosting a FEMA vaccination POD and will be handing out $20 gift cards to casino restaurants to people getting vaccinated. And on Saturday, the Health Department, City of Tucson and Reid Park Zoo will be offering free admission to the Zoo from 5:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. to people getting vaccinated there.

Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva has called for the federal government to respond to the County’s request last week to be able to send oversupplies of COVID-19 vaccines to Sonora, Mexico. With the pace of inoculations slowing and an abundant supply of the vaccine, Dr. Francisco Garcia, the County’s Chief Medical Officer said sending them to Mexico would prevent the supply from expiring.

The County will have enough vaccines for the 300,000-plus residents who are unvaccinated, but we will not be able to vaccinate them all, or not soon enough, to keep some vaccines from eventually expiring, Garcia said in a press release.