To get more shots, make it Ohio vs. Michigan
First, an admission right off the top. What follows was not my idea.
Ohio had just begun its Vax-a-million campaign in May when I first saw this proposal floated by another journalist.
I was on board with Gov. Mike Dewine’s attempt to raise COVID-19 vaccination rates by giving away milliondollar prizes and free rides to state universities. I figured it was just kooky enough to work.
The efficacy of the vaccination lot
tery is now in dispute, but I still think it was worth a shot. Literally.
But what now?
Ohio is lagging much of the country in terms of vaccination rates. As of Tuesday, not even half of Ohioans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and just under 46% were fully vaccinated. By comparison, New England states have fully vaccinated rates of more than 60%.
This news came as the delta variant of the virus races around the country and cases are increasing in Ohio, Michigan and many other states. The growing number of cases nationwide suggests the U.S. has entered a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Ohio needs to boost those vaccination rates if we are to save more lives, and the idea I saw mentioned in The Washington Post back in May just might help.
Dewine’s Vax-a-million lottery drew considerable attention outside Ohio, including some from Post national correspondent Philip Bump.
Bump thought the campaign was worth a try, but tucked away toward the end of his analysis he proposed another idea that struck me at the time as simple and brilliant.
“As a former student at Ohio State,” Bump wrote, “allow me to offer a different incentive.
“According to Washington Post data, the density of vaccination in Ohio is about three percentage points lower than the state of Michigan. Are we to believe that the Buckeyes can trounce the Wolverines over and over and over and over again in football, but trail Michigan on this equally important metric?
“That’s what should be at the Vax-amillion site,” he proposed. “An Ohio vs. Michigan tracker. Unlike in football, the state can’t count on Michigan to have been wildly overrated coming into this contest.”
I’m guessing others have thought of this idea too, and probably have bounced something similar around on Twitter or Facebook, in the family living room or at the local bar.
It’s a good idea, right?
Since Bump made his pitch, the Ohio vs. Michigan spread has grown wider, and not in our favor.
As of Friday, about 48.5% of Ohioans who are 12 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. According to figures for that state up north, 57.3% of Michigan residents are at the same point.
That’s not even close, Buckeyes. Time to close that gap. We could set The Game as our final deadline.
We could take this challenge even further, to include all of the Big 10. In the Big 10 states, Ohio is running dead last. Only the home state of the Hoosiers and Boilermakers is close; Indiana’s numbers show that 49.2% of residents who are 12 years old and older have received at least a first dose.
It looks like Ohio and Indiana are the only Big 10 states running below 50 percent. Based on numbers collected by the Mayo Clinic, it looks like Pennsylvania and New Jersey are neck-and-neck in leading the conference.
We can do this. Say it with me: O-H!
eee
On Tuesday, I wrote about a woman I first met two years ago, while looking into the substandard living conditions at an East Side apartment complex known as Colonial Village.
The city updated tenants last week on the status of its courtroom fight to force management and the complex owners to clean up their act. Residents have been complaining for years of a range of problems, from gun violence to incessant sewage backups in their apartments.
As I followed up with Char Jones last week, I found that conditions were even more terrible for her now than they had been in 2019. Making matters even worse, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year.
Her story struck a nerve with readers, who have passed along leads for better living arrangements and asked how they might help her out financially.
I’m happy to do what I’ve done with similar requests through the years. While I’m not tech-savvy enough to deal with Venmo and the like, feel free to send a check made out to Char Jone, gift cards, or whatever else you think she might need to The Dispatch. I’ll make sure to get it all to her. You can send it to my attention at The Columbus Dispatch, 62 E. Broad St., Columbus OH 43215.
And as always, thanks for reading The Dispatch. tdecker@dispatch.com @Theodore_decker