May 25, 2021 03:48 PM UTC

Come On, Get Vaxxed. Maybe Get Paid.

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s John Aguilar reports, what’s it going to take to get a COVID-19 shot in your arm today?

How about (dramatic pause) one million dollars?

Colorado will hand out $5 million — $1 million each to five lucky winners — in an effort to encourage residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as the number of shots given to ward off the deadly disease has dropped off in the last few weeks.

Gov. Jared Polis announced the new vaccination incentive program, dubbed Colorado Comeback Cash, on Tuesday afternoon at the Governor’s Mansion. He was joined by several state officials as well as the deputy director of the Colorado Lottery.

“All you have to do to enter is get vaccinated,” an ebullient Polis said during a news conference. “This is a million dollars cash on the barrel today. May the odds be ever in your favor, Colorado.”

If you’re already vaxxed, like Ed McMahon used to say, “you may already be a winner!” And if you haven’t seen fit to take advantage of appointment-free availability of COVID-19 vaccinations anywhere you go, access that billions of people across the planet are literally dying for…well, you could win yourself a million dollars now without even investing the cost of a lottery ticket. A million dollars, just for being part of the solution to the biggest public health disaster of the 21st Century so far instead of the problem.

Morally speaking, we hope it all goes to people who got vaccinated before the sweepstakes.

But whatever it takes to bring in the stragglers.