Govit-19: Quebec launches vaccinated contest, risks $ 2 million

Quebecs who receive one or two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will have the opportunity to become rich. Ministers Christian Dupe and Eric Girard released a lottery on Friday, awarding a total of 2 million prizes to successfully complete the final pace of the vaccination campaign.

“We are doing it for our health network, we are doing this for the education of our youth – we can reopen it under conditions that are right in September – for economic reasons,” said Health Minister Christian Dube. Everyone wants to return to normal life as much as possible. “

Quebec’s economy is recovering from the recession. It is performing better than the government expected in the last budget in March. “This economic recovery depends on health care,” said Economy and Innovation Minister and Finance Minister Eric Gord. There is no economic survival without this protection. Therefore, vaccination is very important. “

“Succeed by being vaccinated!” The competition will officially start on July 25, the date on which people can register on the same platform where their vaccine source is located. Adults who receive the first dose will have a draw up to $ 150,000 each week in August. Those who register before August 31st have their two levels and have a chance to win more than a million jackpots by September 3rd.

Those under the age of 18 who receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine are eligible for two $ 10,000 scholarships in the weekly draw in August. Recipients of two injections will receive a $ 20,000 sixteen stipend in another draw on September 3rd.

The government hopes to advance 600,000 appointments for the second injection and provide first doses for 18- to 34-year-olds. “We do all this to avoid being hospitalized if cases start to rise again in the fall. We saw it in Europe: in countries where they are well vaccinated, there is an increase in cases, but not necessarily hospitalized.”

The goal is to have 75% of Quebecs 12 years and older by the end of August fully vaccinated; The rate is 50% as of July 15. Both ages are under the first dose target: 18-29 NS, 69%, and 30-39 NS, 74%.

Daniel Barre, director of the Quebec Vaccine Campaign, estimates that this lottery will increase the number of first-dose injections by a few thousand injections a day.

Like other places in Canada

Other Canadian provinces have introduced such raffles to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Alberta will offer a total of three $ 1 million in prizes to its vaccinated citizens by the end of September. The provincial health ministry acknowledges that it is not possible to accurately estimate the outcome of the effort, but since the lottery began on June 12, more than 191,000 people have received their first dose of the vaccine and more than 1.4 million. A spokesman. To date, 1.8 million Alberts have participated in this lottery.

In Manitoba, those who are vaccinated have a chance to win one of the 000 100,000 14 prizes (or one of the 20 25,000 scholarships for those under 18). The government noted the increase in appointment planning the day after the lottery was announced on June 9, but it has since faded. To date, 77% of manitobans eligible for the vaccine have still received the first dose and 60.4% of the second dose, according to a spokesman for the province’s immunization campaign.

There is little scientific information on the effectiveness of this type of lottery. “It is difficult to isolate a scale when there is a basket of activity,” said anthropologist Ève Dubé, who analyzes the behavior of Quebecs during epidemics on behalf of the National Institutes of Health. Quebec General Population (INSPQ).

He compares the potential influence of the lottery on the vaccine with the curfew order on the transfer rate last winter. “It simply came to our notice then [si] It really was the curfew order that made a difference. It’s a bit the same thing. […] But there are more strategies, and we know it will be more effective. “

Doubts are in the opposition

Unity Quebec And this Quebec Party They wonder if this approach is right.

“We find it very difficult to reach young people,” said Solidarity member Christine Labrie. I wonder if this money could not have been better invested by setting up more mobile clinics to reach out directly to young people. He also recalled that his party had proposed a pay-as-you-go “vaccine break” to avoid losing wages when someone had to devote time to work to get their measure.

On the PQ side, the party’s health spokesman Joel Arseno responded that “the ‘lotto-vaccine’ causes unrest.” “This kind of attempt to import from the United States has not been successful. In addition, the use of government-sponsored games to search for youth is delicate in terms of values ​​and ethics. What kind of signal do we want to send? Have we really exhausted all means of mobilizing youth?”

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