Five Ohioans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19
are about to win $1 million through a new vaccine lottery program, but a Republican lawmaker wants to call the whole thing off.
State Rep. Jena Powell, R-Arcanum, is drafting legislation that would prevent the state from administering any vaccine lottery program.
Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans
have already signed up for the Vax-A-Million lottery, which will begin May 26 and include five weekly drawings of $1 million prizes. Participants must be at least 18 years old and have received at least their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
There is a
separate lottery program for those between the ages of 12 and 17, with the teenage winners receiving a full-ride scholarship to any Ohio college or university.
The prize money will come from federal relief funds that have already been allocated to the Ohio Department of Health.
There is some early evidence that
vaccinations have ticked upward since that announcement, and two other states have now introduced their own version of a vaccine lottery.
The Vax-A-Million program
has received plenty of attention since Gov. Mike DeWine first announced the drawings last week.