By
Bhushan Akolkar
September 23rd, 2022
All that matters is to have the majority willing to get the vaccine, and once 75% of the population is immune, the minority who did not get vaccinated would be safe.
Following the deliberation on how to get people vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19 virus that has claimed over 1.5 million lives globally, a Former Democratic Congressman, John Delaney has proposed an idea that could get about 75% of the US population immune to the virus. According to him, all the concerned parties should consider creating an incentive or simply tying the COVID-19 stimulus checks to the exercise to get more people who earlier had no intention of getting vaccinated to change their stance.
This is to replicate the method Mexico and India adopted by handing out incentives and household products to parents who allowed their kids to be vaccinated against a virus.
Delaney has no strong feelings towards people who strongly oppose the vaccine. According to him, everyone has the right to oppose the vaccine on whatever ground. However, they would benefit from the program. All that matters is to have the majority willing to get the vaccine, and once 75% of the population are immune, the minority who did not get vaccinated would be safe.
Proposed Plan
To perfectly go by this plan, Delaney proposes that the government can number those who come out to get the vaccine. Such numbers could be entered with their Social Security numbers so they receive a monetary incentive. If the $1500 distribution in exchange for the COVID-19 vaccine is implemented, the government would have to spend $380 billion on this exercise.
Delaney admits that the proposed $1500 incentive can be reduced with some of the possible suggestions falling within $1000-$1200. As it stands, there is no formal submission of the proposal to tie the COVID-19 vaccine to the stimulus check, but can be considered in the future.
Opposing Views on the COVID-19 Stimulus Checks
This proposal has been opposed by several experts including Senior Vice President at Bipartisan Policy Center, Bill Hoagland. In his view, though the idea looks interesting, the distribution of stimulus checks should not be tied to the COVID-19 vaccine if they indeed want to provide a relief package to the people.
Senior fellow at the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, Howard Gleckman also applauded the idea but pointed out that this can create an unnecessary delay in the money distribution. He believes that this is a reverse order in delivering stimulus checks to the population.
“It’s always nice to be able to kill two birds with one stone, but in this case, I think the two birds are flying off in different directions,” he said.
The vaccination has been said to give priority to older people. Meaning older people should be the first to obtain their stimulus checks with the younger ones waiting for about 5 months to get theirs. Also, there will be a lot of time invested in cross-checking names of people vaccinated and meeting the laid down requirements to have access to the stimulus checks by the Treasury Department.
