Britain has population of circa 66.6 million People.
Research by Professor Daniel Freeman, University of Oxford, reported that 72% of British People or circa 48 million People say they are willing to get the COVID-19 Vaccination.
But VACCINE HESITANCY and VACCINE MISTRUST are major problems.
16% of British People or circa 10.6 million People in Britain say they are UNSURE about whether or not to get vaccinated.
12% of British People or circa 8 million People in Britain say they are STRONGLY RESISTANT to getting Vaccinated.
To minimize Deaths occurring due to COVID-19 infection the UK Government needs to vaccinate 25 Million UK Citizens categorized as VULNERABLE, due to their Age or underlying medical conditions.
University of Oxford research about 16% Hesitancy and 12% Strongly Resistant, are just general averages for entire UK Population.
But if you calculate that 12% out of total number of 25 million UK Citizens classified as Vulnerable, equates to 3 MILLION VULNERABLE PEOPLE, who are Strongly Resistant to getting vaccinated, then you see that something needs to be done to persuade and motivate these 3 Million Vulnerable People to get vaccinated.
My suggested solution to overcome problem of Vaccine Hesitancy is for the UK Government to set up a VACCINATION PRIZE DRAW system. Every person who gets Vaccinated has a CUSTOMER REFERENCE NUMBER, so each Customer Reference Number can become a “VIRTUAL TICKET”.
The UK Government could pick out some Customer Reference Numbers (“ Virtual Tickets”) at random and award various cash prizes ranging from say GB£10,000 or up to GB£100,000.
In a manner similar to the Prize Bond Draw, each Customer Reference Number – Virtual Ticket, could be re-entered into regular monthly draws, so regardless of the Date on which the person actually received their first vaccination jab or their second vaccination jab, their Virtual Ticket will be entered in all future Monthly Draws, until the date of closure of the Vaccination Draw system.
The use of a Vaccination Prize Draw is firstly an effective way to say THANK YOU to those people who have already made effort to get vaccinated, and secondly is an effective way to motivate and encourage the 28% of Vaccine Hesitant People, to actually make effort to get vaccinated, because if they fail to get vaccinated, they will miss out on chance to participate in the Vaccine Prize Draw.
If UK Government fails to persuade the 28% of Vaccine Doubters, to get vaccinated, then UK Economy will suffer loss of many Billions of Pounds, in terms of more Lockdowns, loss of Productivity and paying costs of Employee Salary Support Schemes and Business Supports.
The Cost to UK Government of paying out a total of say GB£50 million in Vaccination Draw Prizes, is a tiny cost, as compared with Number of Avoidable Deaths and the Billions of Pounds which UK Government will lose, if COVID persists in the UK because not enough UK People have opted to get vaccinated.
Sales Taxes or Consumption Taxes such as Value Added Tax, typically generate up between 20% and 33% of all tax revenue for many Governments worldwide.
Governments in several countries such as Taiwan, China, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Czech Republic and Latvia started to notice that they were MISSING OUT on collecting up to ONE THIRD of all potential Sales Tax or Value Added Tax Revenues because many Consumers were deliberately choosing to pay Cash when buying Goods or Services in order to avoid paying the Sales Tax or VAT.
In order to avoid missing out on collecting Sales Tax Revenues, many Governments have introduced a “RECEIPT LOTTERY”.
The purpose of a RECEIPT LOTTERY is to encourage Consumers to change behaviour by asking the Seller for an official Sales Receipt or VAT Receipt which means the Government can track Sales Tax and VAT Returns, and then Consumer can then enter his or her Receipt Number in to a monthly Draw, through which the Consumer has chance to win a cash prize.
The Receipt Lottery Prize system is proven to drive positive changes in Consumer Behaviour.
Hence, it is my belief that a VACCINATION PRIZE DRAW System can drive change in Consumer Behaviour and help UK Government to overcome Vaccine Hesitancy.
Please note there are already lottery software systems available, which any Government can buy in order to operate a Receipt Lottery based on VAT Receipt Number.
In order to operate a Vaccination Prize Draw, the UK Government does not have to invent any new software, but UK Government could use an existing commercially available Receipt Lottery Software, such as https://www.egame-solutions.com/games_vat.html
But the several advantages of a Vaccination Prize Draw are:
1) It allows UK Government to say THANK YOU to those who got vaccinated early
2) If people go back to get their second vaccination jab, they can be awarded a second virtual ticket, which increases their chance of winning a prize and this will encourage those people who already got their FIRST JAB, to make effort go back and get their SECOND JAB
3) It motivates the Vaccine Doubters, to make effort to get Vaccinated.
4) It can helps UK Government to better communicate with “The Unreachables” who are the demographic of Young People aged 15 to 25 that typically are NOT watching TV and who are NOT reading Newspapers, but who are looking at social media for 3 hours per day.
5) Cost of paying out some Prize Money is tiny cost, as compared against Economic Loss if UK Economy is hit by several local or national Lockdowns.
6) Once UK Government has successfully introduced a Vaccination Lottery Draw, the same system could be used by other UK Government Departments to drive Behaviour Change.
For Example if UK Government wants to promote acceptance of other Vaccines such as the MMR Vaccine or the Winter Flu Vaccine or collecting VAT Revenue.
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