Traditional incentives don’t offset COVID vaccine hesitancy

Neither money nor other nudges are enough to persuade vaccine-hesitant people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a new USC study shows. The findings, published recently in the journal Vaccine, suggest the standard public health playbook may be ineffective, and mitigating future pandemics may require stronger policy levers such as employer rules or government mandates. “There is literature and evidence from other vaccination campaigns like the flu, and even some childhood vaccinations, showing that financial incentives do move the needle. We were expecting similar results,” said Mireille Jacobson, an economist and associate professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, co-director of the Aging and Cognition Program at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics and the study’s first co-author. “Apparently, people have much stronger beliefs and objections about COVID-19 vaccination.” COVID vaccine hesitancy: Vaccinations stalled after 2021 rollout Despite rapid initial uptake, COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States stalled within a...