“West Virginia to give $100 savings bonds to residents under 35 who get vaccine”

“West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) has promised 16-to-35-year-olds ‘a $100 savings bond to every single one that steps up and takes the vaccine’ in an effort to encourage widespread uptake of the jab among the young…

Recognizing the difficulty to ‘get kids across the finish line with this,’ Justice suggested implementing a $100 savings bond incentive for 35-year-olds and under who take one of the experimental coronavirus vaccines available under the Food and Drug Administration’s ’emergency use authorization’ protocol.

The initiative is to be funded by the money received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in March 2020 and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. ‘We have these dollars available,’ Justice said…

Justice expressed his fear that as much as 40 percent of his state will decide that… we don’t want to take the shot. We just aren’t going to do it… And if that be the case, we’ve got 588,000 [people] that are sitting on the side-lines, they’re not taking the shot.”

‘So, we are going to be faced with wearing these masks that nobody likes for a long, long, long time,’ threatened Justice, before saying that ‘we’ve got to do something about this,’ working the latter phrase into something of a refrain throughout his speech.

Though the billionaire statesman lamented young people in West Virginia not receiving vaccines ‘as fast as we’d like them to take them,’ he did suggest that there are ‘lots and lots of ways to get there.’

‘I’m trying to come up with a way that’s truly going to motivate them — and us — to get over the hump,’ Justice added…

In addition to doling out a financial prize to those who come forward for a vaccine following Justice’s announcement, the governor has pledged to provide the gift retrospectively to those under 35 who received the vaccine before learning of the incentive.

Emboldening his efforts to convince as many people as possible to receive a COVID jab, Justice followed President Joe Biden’s lead, describing the act of vaccinating, as well as keeping U.S. savings bonds, as ‘patriotic,’ even suggesting that young Americans ‘can always do with an extra dose of patriotism … a real dose of patriotism from the standpoint of a savings bond.’

Additional measures to assist vaccine uptake include paying pharmacies to open later and using social media, ‘whether its TikTok or Instagram or Snapchat … to be able to target our younger folks.’

Justice, previously a Democrat during the 2016 gubernatorial election cycle, attempted to quell any fears people may have about the numerous reports of side effects emerging after taking one of the available coronavirus vaccines, explaining that ‘our medical experts are going to tell you over and over … just how safe these vaccines are. They are safe beyond belief; they are safe in every way beyond absolute belief.’

According to Justice, there is little reason for anyone to be concerned about the jabs. ‘Think about the downside of the vaccination: it’s next to nothing,’ he said, downplaying the growing log of debilitating ailments and deaths.”