When getting vaccinated could mean winning a $1.4 million apartment

When the Covid vaccination rollout started, the biggest mat­erial prize was an Instagramable sticker.

Now in Hong Kong, you could score a Tesla or even an apartment in the world’s most-expensive housing market. With gold bars, a diam­ond Ro­lex and a $100,000 shopping spree also up for grabs, Its vacc­ine lotteries are easily the flash­iest. Yet it’s far from the only lo­c­ation rolling out eye-catching incentives to try and boost flagging vaccination rates.

Russia’s giving away snowmobiles. West Virginians can score lifetime hunting licen­ces and custom rifles. In Alabama, those vaccinated got offered a cha­nce to drive on a speedway track.
 

As the delta variant rips thro­ugh the world, pleas for people to get vaccinated are becoming more forceful in countries fortunate enough to have abund­ant supplies. Governments and private businesses are trying a range of tactics, from ads feat­uring reassuring messages from trusted local figures — like doct­ors or hospital workers — to ef­forts in places like France to limiting access to public venues.

Giveaways are the less politically fraught option, though they have raised ethical questions. While policymakers don’t expect such incentives to have much effect on the outright skeptical, the hope is they may give those who are procrastinating a push over the line.
 

But do they push up vaccination rates? Evidence is patchy. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of initial surges. In Hong Kong, the number of residents fully vaccinated against Covid-19 has doubled in the last seven weeks to over 2 million people, coinciding with the rollout of a host of private sector incentives.

On the other hand, a stu­dy of Ohio’s vaccine lottery fou­nd no evidence it had incre­ased vaccination take-up though it did suggest rates had slowed less in Ohio than in the US overall.