That sounds reasonably responsible, then. 
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My concern is unvaccinated adults.
The only people wearing masks now are cautious vaccinated people. Anyone who didnât want to get the vaccine also seems to have no interest in masking.
I donât care about outdoors. There is almost no evidence of outdoor spread, apart from very close quarters. Iâm worried about my children if we go inside anywhere. I had gotten to the point that we took them to the grocery store, but now I think we will have to stop.
If daycare stops masks, I may have to pull the kids.
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It does! I hope they can make it work logistically with crowds that enormous. Maybe you have to upload it in advance or something and then you get a code that gets scanned? Iâm curious to see how they make this work.
ETA: my eeeeehhhhhh is more in response to your 0-60 statement. It FEELS like too much too soon. I guess this all is going to take a while.
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I recently heard the quote: we currently have two types of people in this nation. People wearing masks who donât need to, and people not wearing masks who need to. 
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Big time same. My anxiety is already kicking into full gear. The climbing gym has already announced that they will require masks even after June 2nd because they have so many young kids in the gym. That makes me happy.
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Interesting medscape article today.
Winning Idea: Ohio Vaccine Lottery
Winning Idea: Ohio Vaccine Lottery Shows Some Incentives May Work
Editorâs note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscapeâs Coronavirus Resource Center.
For some residents of Ohio, the prospect of winning $1 million is enough of an incentive to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated against COVID-19. In fact, since Governor Mike DeWineâs office announced the five weekly drawings of $1 million each, the number of people signing up has increased.
âFriday saw more vaccines than any day in the last three weeks. We have seen increases in teenagers getting vaccinated as well as adults 30 to 74,â Dan Tierney, press secretary for the office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, told Medscape Medical News .
âThis is truly changing the downward trends in vaccine uptake,â he added. âWe are pleased that this has helped draw attention to the power of the vaccine and encouraged people to get vaccinated.â
Like other recently announced COVID-19 vaccine incentives, the goal is to reach the people amenable to getting vaccinated but who need a nudge to act. This âmoveable middleâ group lies somewhere between the vaccine enthusiasts and people who report they will never get vaccinated.
The vaccine incentive programs are not without controversy. Some Ohio officials criticized the use of federal COVID-19 relief money to fund the incentive, for example. But DeWine, who came up with the idea for the lottery, appears unswayed.
The âOhio Vax-a-Millionâ drawings are planned for 5 consecutive Wednesdays starting May 26. At the same time, a second drawing for full scholarships to a 4-year state college will be held for residents 12 to 17 years old who get vaccinated.
The Ohio lottery may be getting the most attention, but it is not alone. Other states and retailers are encouraging the âmoveable middleâ through giveaways of donuts, beer, baseball tickets, and more. West Virginia announced a $100 savings bond incentive for residents, one that requires more patience because the bonds will not mature for years.
Although some have criticized Ohio for such a high-dollar incentive, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice estimated their program would cost $27.5 million if the state vaccinated every resident 16 to 35 years old.
He described the amount as a âsmall priceâ compared with the $75 million the state has already spent on COVID-19 testing.
Predicting Who Will Be Swayed
One goal all the incentive programs share is motivating people âon the fenceâ about COVID-19 vaccines. Research on the demographics or personas of people most likely to land within this group or respond to targeted messaging can be helpful, but itâs likely just a starting point, experts point out.
âWe are targeting all eligible Ohioans, but we are also making efforts to make sure underserved communities and older Ohioans are included,â Tierney said.
Dr Robert Bednarczyk
Public health officials often classify groups of people who may be more or less likely to get vaccinated versus others. âWe think through whoâs getting vaccinated, whoâs not, and who may have intentions to get vaccinated,â Robert Bednarczyk, PhD, assistant professor, Hubert Department of Global Health and Department of Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said during a May 18 media briefing sponsored by Emory.
âI think that some of those categories that we oftentimes look at tend to be very singularly focusedâ he said, so they do not account for the diversity of individuals within a certain group.
âSome of that research is useful for an initial look at who is intending to get vaccinated and who is not, but that doesnât give us all of the answers.â
Instead, understanding on a person-by-person or small-group basis who may be amenable to some of vaccine incentive programs remains essential. âWe canât paint everyone who we identify with particular demographic characteristics to all have the same attitudes and the same perceptions,â he added.
On a Persona Level
Instead of grouping people by age, sex, race, or ethnicity when predicting the effectiveness of vaccine incentives, looking at personas might help. It would be similar to a customer-based approach to advertising or messaging that companies can employ.
There are five main persona types when it comes to willingness to get vaccinated for COVID-19, a nationally representative survey of 2747 US adults reveals:
- The enthusiasts
- The watchful
- The cost-anxious
- The system distrusters
- The conspiracy believers
Excluding the 40% of enthusiasts and the 17% of conspiracy believers, the survey group Surgo Ventures noted that means 43% of Americans fall into one of the persuadable groups.
A Surgo analysis of the findings aligns with Bednarczykâs take on classifying people. âCertain subgroups â women, Republicans, essential workers, Black individuals, rural residents, and those with lower incomes and education levels â tend to express lower likelihood of taking the vaccine, but these groups are not a monolith.â
Instead, they report that addressing barriers by persona could be helpful. For example, the key barrier for the âwatchfulâ group is community norms â they tend to wait and watch others go first.
The âcost-anxiousâ are, like the name suggests, more concerned about time and money â so an incentive for employees to take paid time off to get vaccinated might resonate with them.
The âsystem distrustersâ include people who might believe COVID-19 vaccines have not been fully evaluated for safety in their racial or ethnic group and/or who have a general distrust of the healthcare system. Reaching this group might require promoting data on racial vaccination disparities or setting up vaccination clinics in local communities.
Whatâs In It for Me?
So once officials identify the type of person they need to reach, what other considerations are important? Messaging that highlights the benefits for an individual can be more effective than altruistic or population-based advantages associated with COVID-19 vaccination, research shows.
For example, investigators in the United Kingdom assessed 15,014 for vaccine hesitancy. Within this group, 66% were willing, 16% doubtful, and 18% were strongly hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Although the type of information offered did not significantly change vaccine hesitancy among those willing or doubtful, it did have a significant effect on those strongly hesitant.
Vaccine hesitancy rates dropped among the strongly hesitant more when information focused on not getting personally ill compared with the collective benefit of lowering transmission of the virus, investigators reported May 12, 2021, in The Lancet Public Health.
Not a Substitute for Public Health Outreach
During the media briefing, a reporter asked Bednarczyk how long it will likely take to gauge the success of the Ohio COVID-19 lottery and other recent incentives.
âI donât know if thereâs a clear number that weâre looking at or a clear rate that weâre looking at that would indicate that this is working,â he said. âWhat weâre really paying attention to is: are the numbers just continuing to go up?â
The recent expansion of vaccine eligibility to include 12- to 15-year-olds could also increase the number of vaccinations, he added.
Ultimately, vaccine access and community outreach are more essential than incentive programs, Bednarczyk said.
âFor individuals who donât have confidence in the vaccine or in the vaccination program, these giveaways are not likely to overcome these concerns,â he said. âWe still need to work with our communities to understand their concernsâ and help answer their questions.
âI worry that while we may see some people getting vaccinated because of these incentive programs and because of these giveaways, that these more flashy types of programs may distract from that day-to-day, on-the-ground work that our public health practitioners are doing.â
Damian McNamara is a staff journalist based in Miami. He covers a wide range of medical specialties, including infectious diseases, gastroenterology, and critical care. Follow Damian on Twitter: @MedReporter.
For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
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My cousin in Ohio, who has been refusing to wear masks, patronize businesses that require masks, or get the vaccine and who got covid after a roadtrip to florida during the peak of the pandemic will not stop RANTING about the vaccine lottery and the waste of taxpayer money.
Iâm not in love with it as a policy practice, but I definitely want to see it from a behavioral econ perspective.
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Also thought people might find the poll on the CDC announcement interesting:
(912 responses so far)
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Yeah I was honestly a little surprised to see itâs working, but I also really like the breakdown and call to action in the article.
Now Iâm debating whether to spend time and energy registering for the vaccine lottery. LOL
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I went to a grocery store tonight that is still requiring masks. Probably 90% had them on, about the same as before.
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I guess all these changes just really donât affect me at all. Masking indoors peaked at about 25% here when things were at the very worst. Thereâs never been a mask mandate anywhere in the state or the neighboring one.
Iâm sorry to have to welcome you all to my world. At least now there are vaccines.
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Saw my (amazing) PCP today and both she and the medical student training under her were side eyeing the CDC recommendations. In my specific case, Iâve been ordered to continue masking in public or when around folks whose vax status I donât know. She also ordered an antibody test for me so we can see if I have managed to retain any defense from the vaccine.
Masks are now totally optional at the university campus and apparently all changes/restrictions will be lifted for summer B and Fall term. No more remote work or classes, no masks or distancing.
I feel you @rural.
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Same here. As far as I know, masks will still be allowed, but full capacity all rooms, all remote work arrangements end June 30, no vaccines required, no testing (weâve never done a single test), no quarantine requirements.
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No testing?? Thatâs crazy. Remote work ended April 1st for us (not an insignificant factor in me quitting), and vaccines have been heavily encouraged officially. Even then I think the hospital system was reporting less than 60% vaccinated.
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The institution never did a single test. Mostly testing was unavailable, in the area even with health insurance (which most of our students donât have), then you could get it if you had a car to go to a drive through, then completely unavailable in the county again.
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15-80% of certain immunocompromised people may not have mounted a vaccine response
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I see that the grocery store that was still requiring masks yesterday will be dropping that on Monday.
Iâm not an epidemiologist or scientist so Iâm going to trust what people more knowledgeable than I have to say regarding vaccinated people not needing to mask. HOWEVER, from a real-world execution standpoint, I wish policy makers had said something more like âvaccinated people donât need to mask, so once we hit x% vaccinated, weâll eliminate the mask mandate.â
And the rushed nature of the changes is so infuriating. Making changes at 9 pm Friday that go into effect 9 am Saturday (like happened in my state) doesnât give places that are trying to enforce and comply with these orders a fighting chance. The uncertainty and quick changes of last spring SUCKED, but 1. There was always more notice than this and 2. Iâm a lot more understanding of quick changes when the goal is saving lives, not getting to ditch masks a few days earlier.
ETA: the changes made Friday night went into effect Saturday morning, not Monday. See, my brain resists even writing it.
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This is what Minnesota was going to do. Then the CDC changed things and the mask mandate was dropped immediately. We are getting close as it is to the 70% of people with at least 1 dose to drop the mandate but it was still so fast.
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