DOTHAN, Ala. – In the race to vaccinate people in Alabama, some groups haven’t kept pace.
Young white men in rural areas, including Alabama, have been slow to line up for shots. Fisher Anderson, 17, of Jacksonville, had no plans to get vaccinated.
“I didn’t really want to get it because I didn’t need it,” Anderson said.
But on Saturday, May 15, he pulled into the garages at Talladega Superspeedway to get his first shot after taking two laps around the track. Anderson and his father participated in an event aimed in part at people like them. The Race to End COVID, a partnership between the Alabama Department of Public Health, the Emergency Management Agency and Talladega Superspeedway, is offering access to the track in exchange for free COVID vaccines or tests from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Mark Johnson, assistant administrator for the Northeastern Public Health District, said the appetite for vaccines has declined in recent weeks. He hoped the Saturday event could rev it back up.
“Males are more reluctant to take the vaccine,” Johnson said. “We are hoping this appeals to them. Of course, women like to drive fast too and that’s great. But we hope this appeals to the males with the lead foot.”
Drivers took the laps at about 75 to 80 miles per hour, a fraction of a typical race car’s speed, but enough to get the blood pumping around Talladega’s famous banked turns.
“It was scary,” said Joe Bills of Talladega. “I didn’t think it was that steep. I thought it was going to roll over.”
Bills said he wanted to get the COVID-19 vaccine but hadn’t been able to schedule an appointment. He couldn’t get anyone on the phone or appointments filled up. But he jumped at the opportunity at Talladega.
As demand for vaccines has slowed, officials are increasingly offering incentives to drive reluctant patients to shot clinics. West Virginia has offered $100 saving bonds to people between the ages of 16 and 35 who get vaccinated. Vaccinated people in Ohio become eligible for $1 million drawings.
Some companies have offered their own incentives. Krispy Kreme is offering free donuts to people who can prove they have been vaccinated. Employers such as nursing homes have given bonuses to vaccinated employees. Walmart and the Montgomery Housing Authority will offer $50 gift cards at pop-up clinics.
The Talladega event is one of the most creative efforts to encourage vaccines in Alabama.
“Each one of these is, in a sense, an experiment,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “We don’t know how effective they will be, whether it’s free donuts or Uber and Lyft are giving free rides to the vaccinations for folks who have difficulty getting to the vaccines. I love this Talladega idea because that appeals to a lot of, I think, folks who are holding back.”
However, public health has a history of using incentives to encourage behaviors. In 2016, the Alabama Department of Public Health offered cash payments to residents of Perry County during a deadly tuberculosis outbreak after traditional outreach efforts failed. About 1,800 people got tested in exchange for $20.
Schaffner said he didn’t know whether the West Virginia experiment with savings bonds had been successful.
“I think it might work better if they actually handed you dollars,” Schaffner said. “It’s the immediate reward type of psychology.”
Bertha Hidalgo, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said she has heard of events in San Francisco geared for teens who get a tour of an NFL stadium in exchange for getting vaccinated. Those events raise awareness that vaccines are available, Hidalgo said.
“I don’t know that there’s evidence suggesting that incentives change people’s mind,” Hidalgo said. “If someone was completely against getting vaccinated, a tour of the NFL locker room or a lap around a racetrack wouldn’t necessarily convince them.”
Hidalgo said men have been more vaccine hesitant than women. It’s important that incentives are not coercive but provide an added benefit alongside vaccination.
Alabama has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation, but Hidalgo said many unvaccinated individuals aren’t necessarily opposed to getting shots.
“There is a sizable portion of the population that is not necessarily hesitant but currently ambivalent,” Hidalgo said. “They kind of are in the wait-and-see or haven’t had time yet or don’t really understand it. But if they did understand it or if they did have time or if it was easy enough to go get it, they would go get it.”
Arthur Pence of Oak Hill, Va. needed no incentive to get his shot. He had already been vaccinated when he arrived early Saturday morning at the track. But he wanted to take the laps and asked if he could do so in exchange for a COVID-19 test. Pence drove three days from Virginia for the event.
He saw a blurb on the internet and realized he might never have the opportunity again to drive at Talladega. Since he is retired, he decided to make the drive to take part in the event, not just for the opportunity to take a spin at the track, but also to promote vaccination.
