$25 limit at heart of Parson’s anger over CDC refusal of vaccination incentive plan
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is at odds with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over a proposal to provide incentives worth more than $25 to people who get vaccinated against COVID-19, leading the federal agency to reject the state’s funding request earlier this week.
Parson said as recently as last week that he was “not a big fan” of a vaccine lottery, calling it “rewarding someone or giving them an incentive to do something they should be doing anyhow for public health.”
The governor has nevertheless spent weeks developing an incentive program, but has yet to publicly announce any initiatives. At the same time, the highly-contagious delta variant is driving up cases in Missouri, raising the urgency surrounding vaccination.
“The CDC didn’t accept our plan, which is just totally ridiculous that they would turn us down with Missouri in the situation we’re in right now. So, I think it’s just another obvious problem with the CDC,” Parson told The Springfield News-Leader on Thursday.
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services spokeswoman Lisa Cox said in an email Friday the main concern is that the CDC is limiting incentive packages to $25 per vaccinated person, “and we do not feel this figure will be enough to significantly increase vaccine uptake in Missouri.” The CDC denied Missouri’s request Tuesday.
A CDC official told McClatchy that agency guidelines allow for numerous incentives, including store vouchers and gift cards. But the per-person cap can’t exceed $25 and funds can’t be pooled to create prizes for a raffle or other games of chance.
CDC funds may not be the only way Missouri could use federal aid to pay for incentives. Ohio drew on federal coronavirus relief dollars to pay for its $1 million lottery.
The details of Missouri’s rejected proposal weren’t immediately available. Notes from a June meeting of public health officials indicate that state officials at the time were considering multiple incentive approaches, including drawings for scholarships.
Some officials are skeptical an incentive program would prove effective. Frederick Echols, acting director of the St. Louis Health Department, said Thursday that neighborhood canvassing and one-on-one conversations work best and that people aren’t interested in incentives.
“There’s some really serious questions that community members have, and we don’t want to trivialize their questions or minimize their concerns by just giving them a gift card for food or utility assistance or whatever it may be,” Echols told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Missouri has fully vaccinated 40% of its population, compared to about 48% of the total U.S. population, according to data compiled by The New York Times.
Southwest Missouri is the site of an expanding outbreak, driven by delta, that has resulted in Springfield hospitals being pushed to their limit. Local officials have asked the state to fund an alternative care site to alleviate pressure on the city’s hospitals.
At the same time, vaccinations are also on the rise in some places. On Thursday, Springfield-Greene County Acting Health Director Katie Towns said 4,371 vaccinations had reported locally in the past week, the most since the end of May.
The McClatchy Washington Bureau’s Bryan Lowry contributed to this story
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 3:59 PM.
