Do lottery strategies work to boost COVID vaccination?

COVID-19 has caused a tragic loss of life and well-being. The rapid development, testing, and distribution of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is an incredible biomedical accomplishment. Some people choose not to receive vaccines that are available to them, increasing risk for them and others around them. As an attempt to overcome such vaccine hesitancy, multiple US states are using or considering lottery enrollments to incentive their population. Will this boost vaccination rates? Drs. Allan Walkey, Anica Law, and Nick Bosch examined some of the first data relevant to this question. Results were discouraging, with no improvement observed when OH rolled out their lottery system compared to the rest of the US which did not have lotteries during the same period (as published in JAMA on July 2, 2021). If generalizable, this suggests that alternative approaches will be needed to effectively bolster vaccination rates in the US.

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