By Spy Uganda Correspondent
USA: Washington has added free weed to the list of incentives being offered to people to encourage Americans to get vaccinated against Covid.
Officials at the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) on Monday gave state-licensed cannabis retailers permission to offer one pre-rolled marijuana joint to adult consumers who receive a vaccination at an in-store vaccination clinic.
The promotion which LCB calls “Joints for Jabs,” aims to promote and support the state’s vaccination efforts after they received multiple requests from cannabis retail licensees to help in the efforts.
The promotion is offered to adults 21 and older, and will end on July 12.
The news comes just a few weeks after LCB announced a different incentive offering those who got vaccinated free beer, wine and cocktails.
Across the US, Joe Biden announced incentives ranging from free beers, wines, child care, donuts to baseball game tickets to encourage people to get vaccinated as more states try to reach their vaccination goals.
Similarly, Ohio is betting millions to improve its vaccination rate, the state will give away millions of dollars to vaccinated people and full scholarships to vaccinated children through special lotteries.
Some employers are offering paid time off to hourly employees who get vaccinated including discount grocery chain Aldi (four hours), yogurt-maker Chobani (three hours for each vaccine dose) and Dollar General (four hours) while Others are offering straight-up cash.
Health experts have said the country needs to reach at least a 70% vaccination rate, and maybe as high as 85%, to reach herd immunity when the coronavirus spread can be drastically reduced.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 46.4% of the population had gotten at least one shot of the vaccine, and 35.4% were fully vaccinated but the vaccination rate peaked at more than 3 million doses in April. Now, enthusiasm appears to be waning, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
The percentage of people who say they definitely will not be vaccinated was unchanged from an earlier survey at 13%, while the percentage of those who will only be vaccinated if required dropped from 7% to 6%.
