Ohio Is Giving Out $1 Million Each To 5 Vaccinated Residents
The cash giveaway starts on May 26th, and Ohio adults who have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose may enter a lottery that will provide a $1 million prize each Wednesday for five weeks that follow.
So now it's come to this. We're feeling the need to bribe people to go get their vaccination(s) against the coronavirus because the non-stop blitz of health officials, celebrities, sports teams, states, and municipalities all imploring us to go get it done isn't working well enough?
Okay. Cool. I'm fine with it. They're not taking my money to pay off the winners, so what do I have to complain about?
My chief complaint about money being offered up to entice you to get a vaccination is that Illinois isn't doing it. C'mon, think about it. Bribery is the unofficial sport of our state. Bags of money have been tossed around Illinois to get people to do things they might not want to do since Illinois joined the Union in 1818, and we've done nothing but perfect that art ever since.
Why isn't Illinois going with its strengths? If our entire state were made up of Chicago Aldermen and former governors, everyone in the state would be holding a greasy envelope full of portraits of Benjamin Franklin while nursing a sore injection site on their arm.
Other states are offering up things like access to NFL locker rooms or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garages, trips, and of course, cash like Ohio is doing. What are we getting here besides a possible free beer? A suggestion was made today on the WROK Morning Show that Illinois should offer up something that Illinois residents really want--free use of a moving truck so they can leave. Somehow, I don't see the governor getting behind that one.
Ohio isn't just giving away the 5 million dollars alone. They're also going to give away 5 four-year full-ride scholarships at "an Ohio public university" to vaccinated Ohioans under the age of 18.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine acknowledged the unusual nature of the financial incentives.
“I know that some may say, ‘DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money,’” he said. But the real waste, when the vaccine is now readily available, “is a life lost to COVID-19,” the governor said.