Employers should implement bonus to get vaccinated
Gov. Larry Hogan last week put his money — or more accurately, your money — down on the notion that cash will prove an incentive that can move vaccine-hesitant state employees to get COVID-19 shots.
We think it’s a good bet, and suggest other Maryland leaders do the same.
Vaccine rates have plateaued in Maryland and in Anne Arundel County at roughly a third of the population. That will grow, at least in this county.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools will now offer vaccine clinics for students, teachers and other staff members; while a grassroots effort continues through grants to community organizers.
But it will prove a long, slow slog of coaxing to get vaccinots of this world to take the shot. There are many reasons, from concern about the emergency approval status to politics to fantasies about the pandemic not being a real thing. The reasons don’t really matter, and cajoling simply won’t work.
What will work is giving people a fungible reason to get vaccinated that cuts through their doubts. Reporting by the New York Times on national polling data shows that the financial incentives being offered by Hogan and other governors, mostly Republicans, will largely prove more effective with Democrats.
That’s OK. Even if Republicans are far more likely to eschew vaccination, there are Democrats out there who are waiting for something, too. And Republicans may be likely to respond to non-cash incentives, such as less government focus on masks and social distancing.
When asked last week about the possibility of offering cash incentives for county employees, County Executive Steuart Pittman waffled. His reservations were not clearly stated but seemed to focus on the emergency approval status of all the vaccines available. Another wave of vaccines is coming.
The latest information released shows that about 30% of police and fire department employees have yet to get vaccinated. There is good reason to believe these professionals are more likely to get vaccinated than their peers outside emergency services, so the numbers in the rest of the workforce may be higher.
Cash incentives, or other rewards, might be the thing that gets them and Annapolis city employees and teachers off the mark and into a clinic.
Private employers should consider this as well if they want to get back to work. The hospitality industry is struggling to bring back employees laid off last year as the economy dropped into a pandemic recession. Bonuses for coming back vaccinated would offer a double incentive, one in cash and the other in greater peace of mind.
Any incentives come with a caveat. They haven’t been shown to work, yet. And if someone gets the shot and gets seriously sick, as is happening in very tiny percentages, what is the liability for the employer who wrote the check that tipped the scales in favor of a shot?
As Annapolis and Anne Arundel reenter the festival season — from chicken wings to parades to music to the county fair and Maryland Renaissance Festival — there is another opportunity for the organizers of these events to offer incentives. Requiring a recent negative test or proof of vaccination for entry would not only make these events safer but also motivate those who are desperate for something akin to a normal summer.
National figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci have started to shy away from using terms like herd immunity, surveying a nation of vaccine skeptics and phobics to size up the chances of achieving that decidedly amorphous target. That’s pitiful. We can do better.
If it proves effective, perhaps the $100 approved by Hogan should be expanded to all Marylanders.
It’s an expensive proposition. But if it takes a kick in the wallet to move us forward before variants spread further and the return of fall and winter, that will be worth the price.