President Joe Biden has called on state and local officials to offer residents $100 cash payments as an incentive to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, his administration’s latest push to get Americans vaccinated as the delta variant of the virus spreads.
During a speech Thursday afternoon from the White House, Biden cited research from the University of California, Los Angeles in which roughly one-third of unvaccinated individuals said a cash payment would make them more likely to get a shot.
The latest push comes as coronavirus cases in the U.S. begin to spike once again, with the highly contagious delta variant fueling infection rates. People infected with the delta variant carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than other strains, resulting in higher transmissibility, according to federal health officials.
Health officials maintain that the Covid vaccines are highly protective against the variant, especially against severe disease and death. Still, the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. has slowed in recent months.
