Editorial: The doughnut approach to coronavirus vaccines

We can get behind the Krispy Kreme approach to promoting coronavirus vaccine cards.

The North Carolina-based chain is offering a free daily doughnut all year to customers who show up with their vaccine proof-of-shots ledger. Sure, its only an Original Glazed, but that’s their best option anyway.

Incentivizing vaccines, instead of mandating them, can work. Big government needs to focus on delivering the doses, and leave the rest up to the free market.

The CDC announced Friday that fully vaccinated people can now safely travel within the United States and internationally. That’s another incentive. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last recommended dose of vaccine.

It’s all part of the start of a vaccine passport that will allow access to those who have received their Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson shots.

Incentives work. Peer pressure can’t hurt along with influencers who can help allay fears of vaccinations — especially with reports of tainted manufacturing and the new mRNA technology used in the Moderna and Pfizer doses.

The marketplace is already working on ways to digitize proof of COVID-19 vaccinations, as well.

Incentives and transparency are keys to a successful vaccination program. As history shows, such an approach has made the U.S. polio-free since 1979. But that took time. In the late 1940s, the CDC reports, parents were fearful of their children playing outside, “especially in the summer when the virus seemed to peak.” But science figured it out.

Jonas Salk introduced a polio vaccine, administered by injection, in 1955. And a few years later, Albert Sabin developed an oral version, the New Yorker summed up last year in an essay stressing it will take “incremental, simultaneous progress on multiple fronts” to defeat the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Doughnuts, access to concerts, airline tickets and a seat at countless other tables will be easier to come by if people buy into flashing a vaccine card as effortlessly as they do a driver’s license at a liquor store.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a progressive Democrat, has already floated the idea of a mandated vaccine card — an idea the Republican Governors Association quickly criticized. The last thing America needs right now is the politicization of vaccines. Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez take note.

The coronavirus has killed roughly 554,000 Americans and 2.8 million-plus worldwide, as of last count. If that isn’t enough to convince a vast majority of people to get vaccinated, forcing a card on every adult won’t help. Civil liberties matter. It’s time to just work harder and mandate less.

Many are also worried disadvantaged populations would also feel the pinch. Not everybody has easy access to a car in order to book an appointment for a coronavirus vaccination. Requiring a vaccine passport — especially an electronic one — could leave many out of the loop.

It’s time to take a measured approach. Empower everyone to seek a shot or ask for help securing one. Head out, as state health officials are doing, with mobile units ready to vaccinate those who can’t travel. Don’t shame people for not getting a vaccine, shine a light on those who do.

Then offer them a free doughnut.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3dBlmPY