Help! Vaccine prizes needed

So right now we have several problems at the same time. We have a virus spreading around which causes sickness and death, and an economic downturn due to necessary lockdowns and semi-lockdowns, which is compounded by a halt to tourism.

Businesses are happy when vacationers from this or any country have a great time here and spread their money around on activities and restaurants! But to restore what we had will take effort and cooperation.

This particular crisis has been compounded by misinformation spreading around on the internet, resulting in vaccine hesitancy.

Our medical experts say we need at least 70% of the people to be immune to stop the spread of the virus.

Therefore we need to make it fun. We need the barangays, City Health Departments, Red Cross, and all other outlets for getting the vaccines to offer prizes and/or raffles.

Wouldn't it be nice for everyone to get a beautiful 20 peso coin or a coupon to get ice cream as your reward after a jab? How about everyone gets a massage coupon to use at the boulevard? That'll take the soreness out of your arm quickly!

For larger prizes a raffle is best. For example, a hundred people in each barangay could win a coupon for a whole chicken --I'm sure many of the richer businesses would be glad to donate for such a good cause.

The raffles at the provinces could be a live chicken, a goat or a cow, or things useful for farming life such as shovels, fertilizer, and seeds.

We can make getting a jab fun and restore our economy at the same time!

It will take our leaders a little extra effort to collect rewards for our citizens, but we have seen from other areas that this approach doubles the participants when the vaccines become available.

Richard Baker