NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
THe OBseRVeR — 7A
Ohio offers $1 million weekly prize as vaccine incentive
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio —
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine
has made many news-
worthy statements in his
long political career, but
perhaps none has gener-
ated such an immediate
and intense response as
announcing a weekly $1
million prize and full-ride
college scholarships to
entice more Ohioans to get
the COVID-19 vaccine.
The plan the Republican
governor unveiled May 12
drew criticism from some
Democratic and GOP law-
makers who said it isn’t
appropriate to use fed-
eral pandemic dollars for a
contest. But Andy Slavitt,
President Joe Biden’s
senior COVID-19 adviser,
said anything that draws
attention to vaccines is a
good thing.
“In general, I think we
like the idea of contests,”
Slavitt told CNN.
DeWine says he under-
stands people may think
he’s crazy and consider the
concept a waste of money.
But he said Wednesday the
real waste is a loss of life
to the virus now that the
vaccine is available.
Beginning May 26,
the lottery will provide
Phil Long/Associated Press, File
Kent state university student Regan Raeth, of Hudson, Ohio, looks at her vaccination bandage as she waits for
15 minutes after her shot april 8, 2021, in Kent, Ohio. Ohio Gov. Mike deWine on Wednesday, May 12, announced
a weekly $1 million prize and full-ride college scholarships to entice more Ohioans to get the COVId-19 vaccine.
a $1 million prize each
Wednesday for five weeks.
How will the Ohio vac-
cine incentive work?
DeWine said details
are still being ironed out,
but in short, Ohioans age
18 and older who have
received at least one dose
of the vaccine can get into
the drawing one of two
ways. Those who are reg-
istered voters in the Sec-
retary of State’s database
will be entered automat-
ically. A website will be
available for people to
enter if they’re not in the
elections system.
Each week, names of
potential winners will be
drawn and their eligibility
verified, including whether
they’ve been vaccinated,
DeWine spokesman Dan
Tierney said. Then their
names will be announced
during the Ohio Lottery
Wednesday evening broad-
cast, he said.
Vaccinated Ohioans
under 18 will be entered
into a similar drawing for
full college scholarships,
including tuition and room
and board.
The state Health
Department will admin-
ister the drawings with
help from the Ohio Lottery
Commission. Winners will
pay taxes.
The money will come
from the Health Depart-
ment’s unspent corona-
virus relief funds. Ohio
already distributed $5.9
billion in federal pan-
demic funds, and is now
in line to receive nearly
$5.4 billion in aid from
Biden’s $1.9 trillion coro-
navirus relief package,
amounts dwarfing the lot-
tery payouts.
Can the prize work to
boost vaccinations?
The lottery is unlikely
to change the minds of
those who question the
vaccine’s safety or are
adamantly against get-
ting the shot, said Jane
Risen, a behavioral sci-
ence professor at the Uni-
versity of Chicago who
studies judgment and
decision-making.
But for those who are
worried about side effects
or don’t want to take time
off work, a $1 million prize
could be persuasive, she
said.
“We know people pay
attention to lotteries and
big prizes,” she said. “Even
though the chances are
small, people focus on the
prize rather than the prob-
ability of winning.”
There’s also the fear of
missing out, Risen said.
“When we get into these
giant jackpots, you see
people who would never
buy a lottery ticket buying
them,” she said.
What do lawmakers
think of the vaccine
incentives?
In the past year,
DeWine faced intense crit-
icism from members of his
own party over Ohio’s con-
tinued health orders. While
they welcomed the tandem
news Wednesday that the
state’s mask mandate and
other orders would end
June 2, they also expressed
skepticism at the lottery
announcement.
“I do not support using
gameshow gimmicks with
our federal tax dollars,”
said Rep. Jon Cross, a
Republican from Kenton in
northern Ohio.
On the other side of the
aisle, Rep. Emilia Sykes
of Akron, the top House
Democrat, questioned the
use of federal funds for the
lottery.
“Using millions of dol-
lars in relief funds in a
drawing is a grave misuse
of money that could be
going to respond to this
ongoing crisis,” she said.
In Washington, Biden
press secretary Jen Psaki
said: “The Department of
Treasury has comprehen-
sive guidelines, but does
not typically opine on
each individual program
or creative approach by
different states.”
CDC says mask turnaround based on science
By KIMBERLEE KRUESI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
head of the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention on Sunday,
May 16, defended the
decision to ease mask-
wearing guidance for
fully vaccinated people,
stressing that increasing
political pressure had
nothing to do with the
abrupt shift in guidelines.
“I’m delivering the
science as the science is
delivered to the medical
journals. And it evolved,”
CDC Director Rochelle
Walensky said on FOX
News Sunday. “I deliver
it as soon as I can when
we have that information
available.”
Under the new guide-
lines released last week,
fully vaccinated people
— those who are two
weeks past their final
dose of a COVID-19 vac-
cine — can quit wearing
masks outdoors in crowds
and in most indoor set-
tings and give up social
distancing.
However, partially
vaccinated or unvacci-
nated people should con-
tinue wearing masks, the
agency said. The guid-
ance also still calls for
masks in crowded indoor
settings including buses,
airplanes, hospitals,
prisons and homeless
shelters.
The sudden change
sparked praise from
those eager to return to
pre-pandemic life, partic-
ularly those who see the
new guidelines as a way
to reopen workplaces,
schools and other venues
that went dark during the
pandemic.
Yet concerns have
been raised from those
who say there’s no easy
way for businesses and
others to determine who
is fully vaccinated and
who is not. Instead, many
will have to rely on an
honor system as many
states and communities
have already been lifting
mask mandates amid
improving virus numbers
and as more Americans
have been shedding face
coverings after getting
shots.
“I would imagine
within a period of just a
Khalil Hamra/Associated Press
Palestinians rescue a survivor from under the rubble of a destroyed res-
idential building following deadly Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, sunday,
May 16, 2021. The Israeli airstrikes flattened three buildings and killed at
least 26 people May 16, medics said, making it the deadliest single attack
since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and the territory’s militant
Hamas rulers nearly a week ago.
Israeli strikes hit
Gaza tunnels
Attacks have killed at least 200
Palestinians, wounded 1,300 people
By FARES AKRAM
and JOSEPH KRAUSS
Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza
Strip — The Israeli military
unleashed a wave of heavy
airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
early Monday, May 17,
saying it destroyed 9 miles
of militant tunnels and the
homes of nine Hamas com-
manders, as international
diplomats worked to end
the weeklong war that has
killed hundreds of people.
The latest attacks killed
a top Gaza leader of the
Islamic Jihad militant group
whom the Israeli military
blamed for some of the
thousands of rocket attacks
launched at Israel in recent
days.
Israel has said it intends
to press on for now with its
attacks against Hamas, the
militant group that rules
Gaza, and the United States
signaled it would not pres-
sure the two sides for a
cease-fire.
At least 200 Palestin-
ians have been killed in the
strikes, including 59 chil-
dren and 35 women, with
1,300 people wounded,
according to the Gaza
Health Ministry. Eight
people in Israel, including a
5-year-old boy and a soldier,
have been killed in ongoing
rocket attacks launched
from civilian areas in Gaza
toward civilian areas in
Israel.
Violence also erupted
between Jews and Arabs
inside Israel, leaving scores
of people injured. On May
17, an Israeli man attacked
last week by a group of
Arab citizens in the cen-
tral city of Lod died of
his wounds, according to
police.
The overnight air-
strikes in Gaza on May
17 hollowed out one
floor of a multistory con-
crete building. A woman
picked through clothing,
rubble and splintered fur-
niture in a room that had
been destroyed. One strike
demolished the wall of one
room, leaving untouched
an open cabinet filled with
bedding inside. Children
walked over debris in the
road.
A car in the street that
witnesses said was hit by
an airstrike was bent and
torn, its roof ripped back
and what was left of the
driver’s side door smeared
with blood. A beachside
cafe the car had just left
was splintered and on fire.
Rescue workers tried to put
out the blaze with a small
fire extinguisher. There
was no immediate word on
casualties.
Gaza’s mayor, Yahya
Sarraj, told Al-Jazeera TV
that the strikes had caused
extensive damage to roads
and other infrastructure. “If
the aggression continues,
we expect conditions to
become worse,” he said.
The U.N. has warned
that the territory’s sole
power station is at risk of
running out of fuel, and
Sarraj said Gaza was also
low on spare parts. Gaza
already experiences daily
power outages for between
eight and 12 hours, and
tap water is undrinkable.
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couple of weeks, you’re
going to start to see sig-
nificant clarification of
some of the actually
understandable and rea-
sonable questions that
people are asking,” Dr.
Anthony Fauci, the face
of the U.S. government’s
pandemic response, said
on Face the Nation.
The timing of the
change has also faced
questions. Just days
earlier, Walensky had
defended the agen-
cy’s strict mask guid-
ance in front of a Senate
committee where some
Republicans on the
panel described the
CDC’s guidance as
“unworkable.”
When pressed about
the quick turnaround on
the agency’s stance on
mask wearing, Walensky
said the agency was not
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156 million Americans,
or more than 47% of the
population, have received
at least one dose of
COVID-19 vaccine, and
more than 121 million are
fully vaccinated.
Walensky cautioned
that even with the new
guidelines, it was still too
early to “declare victory,”
but added that she was
“cautiously optimistic”
about the pandemic.
giving in to pressure but
instead needed time to
review evolving science.
“I can tell you it cer-
tainly would have been
easier if the science had
evolved a week earlier and
I didn’t have to go to Con-
gress making those state-
ments. But I’m delivering
the science as the science
is delivered to the medical
journals,” she said.
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