Chickens, cows, paid leave, even a million-dollar apartment – these are the prizes offered from Thailand to Indonesia and Hong Kong for those vaccinated against COVID-19, as part of Asia’s efforts to persuade hesitants. handed over Dariknews.bg.
As morbidity in Southeast Asia has risen in recent weeks due to new, more contagious variants of the virus, national authorities have begun offering opportunities to participate in vaccinated lotteries. In Thailand’s Mae Chaem district in the northern part of Chiang Mai province, where most people are farmers, authorities organized a cow raffle this month, which proved to be a hit.
“It’s the best gift I’ve ever received,” said Inham Thongkham, 65, when he won a one-year-old female cow worth 10,000 baht ($ 320) after being vaccinated against the coronavirus. The campaign, which is now in its second week and features 27 cows, has prompted more than half of the county’s 1,400 residents – many of them adults and high-risk groups – to sign up for immunization. In Thailand, with a population of 66 million, only 4.76 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose of COVID-19.
Many people in Asia do not want to be immunized. Widespread misinformation and uncertainty fuel doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and religious concerns. In Hong Kong, where the pandemic is generally under control, authorities are worried that due to the low vaccination rate, the Chinese special administrative region is still at risk of an epidemic outbreak of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus. Vouchers for shopping, air travel and a new home for 10.8 million Hong Kong dollars (1.4 million USD) are among the prizes offered in the vaccinated lotteries. Some economic sectors are taking additional steps, such as offering paid leave to the immunized. However, a private sports club used penalties instead of rewards and instructed its employees to be vaccinated by the end of June, otherwise they would be deprived of future additional material incentives, salary increases and increases.
Even in countries severely affected by the coronavirus, such as Indonesia, authorities still have difficulty dispelling fears about vaccines. The country has officially reported more than 1.9 million cases of infection and 53,280 deaths. However, recent studies of blood serum samples have shown that the actual prevalence of COVID-19 may be 30 times higher. “I was afraid that if I was vaccinated, I would die right away. Then there was more disturbing news that this vaccine contained pork,” said Asep Sapudin, a 67-year-old resident of Chipanas, Indonesia’s West Java province. Among Indonesian Muslims – who make up more than 85 percent of the country’s population – many are worried about whether vaccines are considered halal, that is, allowed by Islam.
Authorities in Chipanas said it was especially difficult to convince older people that vaccines were safe and halal. As in Thailand, they have resorted to incentives in the form of livestock, offering live chickens to every adult who is vaccinated. “Older people do not want to be vaccinated for a number of reasons, some say they want to, but then they do not come, some are even afraid,” said local police chief Galich Aprian. “That’s why we reward (vaccinating) them with chickens.” According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, only 5 percent or 8.8 million people are fully vaccinated, well below the target of 181.5 million by the end of the year.
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