We are, mercifully, quickly ramping up our vaccination rates in this country. So much so that we are nearing the threshold where supply will soon outstrip demand.
Whether the reasons are ambivalence, complacency, confusion, or otherwise, there is a percentage of the population that is simply not motivated to get the jab. This presents a problem for the whole country, as the authors of this new Cardus publication outline.
Sean Speer (editor at large here at The Hub) and Brian Dijkema (Vice President, External Affairs at Cardus) write that longer lockdowns, continued economic pain, and unnecessary deaths will be the result.
Incentivizing vaccination has been shown to work, they write, and finding the right types of incentives will be key. While some jurisdictions have had promising results with material incentives, this is only part of the solution, they argue. Rather, the most effective combination of incentives is one that has financial and non-financial dimensions, that appeals on both material and moral terms.
Governments should focus on incentives that promote the common as well as the individual good by giving vaccinated citizens money to either spend at local businesses or give to local charities — both entities that have been hit especially hard this pandemic.
“Yes, vaccines are their own reward, and yes, getting them is good for your neighbour also, but given the collective downsides of a vaccination wall, and given the massive gains to be had from herd immunity, why not offer a foretaste of the material rewards that come from beating the pandemic, so that all of us can get there faster? And why not do this in a way that capitalizes on human nature’s responsiveness to calls for solidarity and collective purposes?”
