INDIANAPOLIS (Network Indiana) — If you haven’t gotten the COVID vaccination yet, don’t count on a financial incentive to do it.
President Biden has suggested states use federal pandemic relief money to give people 100 dollars for getting the shot. Governor Holcomb says he’s happy to see the White House looking for ways to boost vaccinations and says he’ll review the idea, but he says it’s not fair to the people he says did the right thing and got the shot early.
I-U and Purdue have held prize drawings for students and faculty who get vaccinated, and neighboring Ohio held five million-dollar drawings among those who got vaccinated. Holcomb’s been skeptical of those efforts — he says for people who have doubts, money won’t change their mind.
Holcomb says the F-D-A could remove a significant roadblock by replacing the vaccines’ emergency approval with full approval. He says he’s talked to a lot of people who wrongly think the current emergency authorization means it’s still experimental.
Just one in a thousand Hoosiers have gotten sick after being fully vaccinated, and fewer than 200 have been hospitalized out of nearly three-million vaccinated. 98-percent of Indiana hospitalizations and 99-percent of deaths have been unvaccinated. Holcomb says with similar results nationally, the F-D-A shouldn’t delay in granting final authorization.
Holcomb says he’s giving the same message to anyone he talks to who’s having doubts: the vaccine works, not just as a protection against serious illness but as a protection against further economic disruptions.
“It is the answer to inadvertently shutting down a supply chain. It is the answer to making sure our kids can stay in school. It is the answer to staying out of the hospital. It is the answer to avoiding death,” Holcomb says.
Nearly half of eligible Hoosiers still haven’t gotten the vaccine. Indiana’s vaccination rate is the third-lowest in the Midwest, with only Missouri and North Dakota ranking lower. The number of Hoosiers in intensive care has doubled in the last two weeks, and is now the highest since February.
