Biden calls for $100 payments for those newly vaccinated against COVID. What to know
President Joe Biden called on local and state governments to offer $100 payments to people who get vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of his administration’s push to get more shots into arms as coronavirus cases rebound across the U.S.
“If incentives help us beat the virus, I believe we should use them,” Biden said during a White House press conference Thursday. “We all benefit if we get more people vaccinated.”
A White House press release announced that Biden will ask “states, territories and local governments” to “do more to incentivize vaccination, including offering $100 to those who get vaccinated.” The funding would come from Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
“Throughout America’s vaccination efforts, we have seen that financial incentives serve as a motivating factor for some people to get vaccinated,” the release states. “When the grocery store Kroger started offering $100 to their associates to get vaccinated, it saw vaccination rates increase from 50% to 75%. States like New Mexico, Ohio, and Colorado have piloted $100 incentive programs that have also helped move the dial on vaccinations.”
Biden also announced that some businesses will get reimbursed if they give their workers paid leave to get family members vaccinated — and that he will direct the Department of Defense to look into adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of required shots for military members.
The announcement comes as COVID-19 cases have spiked across the country, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, which has spread to multiple countries, as well as vaccine hesitancy.
COVID-19 cases across the U.S. have risen by 146% in the past two weeks and hospitalizations have increased by 73% over that same time period as of July 29, according to The New York Times.
Biden previously offered tax credits for businesses with fewer than 500 employees to give workers paid time off to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A study from the University of California Los Angeles also found that one-third of vaccinated respondents said they’d be more likely to get vaccinated against COVID if they were given cash incentives, KRON4 reported.
More than 189 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, accounting for 57.2% of the population, as of July 29, according to the CDC. At least 163.8 million people — or 49.4% of the total U.S. population — are fully vaccinated.
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Biden calls for $100 payments for those newly vaccinated against COVID. What to know."