EDITORIAL: A positive step to encourage the vaccine resisters
May 15—In Ohio, the enticement to get the covid-19 vaccination is a chance at $1 million for adults or a college scholarship for a minor.
In West Virginia, you can get a $100 savings bond.
New York is giving baseball tickets. New Jersey will pour you a beer.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have the best carrot to encourage vaccination. Roll up your sleeve and you can take off your mask (most of the time).
On Thursday, the CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, announced new guidelines for the fully vaccinated that include unmasked interaction in movie theaters or church services, at restaurants or getting a haircut. Want to go to a baseball game and eat hot dogs and drink beer? Get your shot, and you can buy all the peanuts and cracker jack you want.
Meanwhile, all indoor and some outdoor activities and interactions remain less safe for the unvaccinated. And everyone needs to be masked on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation, and within airports and public transport hubs.
"This is another incentive to get the vaccine that is now easily and conveniently available," tweeted state Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam. "Once 70% of Pennsylvanians over 18 are fully vaccinated, we can completely lift the masking order."
Pennsylvania already was headed toward lifting some occupancy limits on Monday and rolling back many restrictions, except the mask requirements, on May 31. The CDC action indicates the state is on a good path.
On Friday, Wolf said on MSNBC that he was pleased with the state's progress on vaccination and that the number of people who are partially or fully vaccinated has made such steps possible.
Being able to take in a summer blockbuster in the theater with a big bucket of popcorn instead of streaming it online with takeout is the start of the payoff for doing what we have been asked to do. For a year, this has been promised, with the always-present caveat of when the disease was under control and when a vaccine was available.
Well, now that's here. But available implies that people are taking it, not just letting it sit on a shelf.
About 7.1 million adult Pennsylvanians still have to get vaccinated to reach the 70% threshold. Please pay attention to that wording. There is a difference between "be vaccinated" — a passive state where something happens to you, thanks to a decision made by others — and "get vaccinated." That's a choice.
Adults get to make their choices and therefore reap the benefits. And right now, the benefit is the ability to take off the mask.
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