As the COVID-19 numbers continue to improve and West Virginia’s first vaccine lottery nears, state and local health officials must continue to push hard to reach more people with the life-protecting vaccines.
We applaud the efforts of Gov. Jim Justice, Dr. Clay Marsh, WVU Medicine and other health-care providers who have been touting the vaccines in a variety of public service announcements aimed at reaching the unconvinced.
We also believe Justice’s decision to implement a lottery with cash, trucks, guns and other prizes for those vaccinated is a positive effort to help the state reach the vaccination percentage needed to achieve herd immunity.
On Sunday, while West Virginians will be celebrating both Father’s Day and West Virginia Day, many also will be awaiting the announcement of the first “Do it for Babydog: Save a Life, Change Your Life” COVID-19 vaccination lottery.
Named for the governor’s beloved English Bulldog, Babydog, the lottery is attracting both national and statewide attention, which is great because there remain far too many West Virginia residents who haven’t been vaccinated.
Any method to convince more people to get the shots should be encouraged.
Those who have at least one dose of the vaccine are eligible to win prizes, so those who haven’t been vaccinated still have time before the deadline for entry into the first drawing, which is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, with the drawing to be held on Thursday. The winners will be announced Sunday.
Those who cannot access the website may call the state’s vaccine hotline at 1-833-734-0965 for assistance.
A single entry registers an individual for all future drawings. No person may win more than one prize.
The drawings will continue weekly through Aug. 1, with giveaways over the course of that period to include full scholarships to any West Virginia state college or university for those ages 12-25, custom-outfitted trucks, weekend state parks vacations, lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, and custom hunting rifles and custom shotguns for those age 18 and older.
Monetary prizes for participants 18 and older will include a $1.588 million grand prize, weekly prizes of $1 million and a $588,000 prize.
With the vaccines readily available at health departments, health-care providers and various drugstores throughout the Mountain State, there is no reason why residents who want to be vaccinated can’t easily accomplish the task prior to the first drawing.
But even if they don’t and choose to wait, they can still register for future drawings once they receive the vaccine.
The steps are easy: Get vaccinated. Register for the drawing and then wait and hope to be a winner.
But in reality, the vaccine’s success in battling the virus is already making winners out of all of us.
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