More States Offer Shot Incentives Though Some Show Mixed Results

NPR: Guns, Trucks And Trips: West Virginia Expands Prizes For Vaccinated Residents
West Virginia is giving its vaccine incentive program a boost to get more residents immunized from the coronavirus, Gov. Jim Justice announced on Tuesday. All residents who get a COVID-19 vaccine will be enrolled in the chance to win a college scholarship, a tricked-out truck, or hunting rifles, in addition to a $1.588 million grand prize. The program, which will run from June 20 through Aug. 4, will be paid for through federal pandemic relief funds. "The faster we get people across the finish line the more lives we save. That's all there is to it," Justice said. "If the tab just keeps running the cost is enormous. The hospitalizations are enormous. We have to get all of our folks across the finish line." (Diaz, 6/2)

AP: Ohio Lottery Announces 2nd Vax-A-Million Incentive Winners
Ohio residents who were recently vaccinated may want to answer their phone on Vax-A-Million days, even if the number isn’t familiar. It might be Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on the other end. ... Jonathan Carlyle, of Toledo, won the $1 million prize and Zoie Vincent, of Mayfield Village in Cuyahoga County, won the college scholarship. More than 3.2 million Ohioans entered their names for a shot at the $1 million, up from the 2.8 million who had registered for last week’s drawing. More than 133,000 children entered their names for the scholarship, up from just over 104,000 last week. (Welsh-Huggins, 6/3)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Vaccine Incentives End With Less Than 15 Percent Of Eligible Adults Claiming Their Reward
More than 5,300 Mainers claimed rewards under the state’s COVID-19 vaccine incentive program in May, but the total represented less than 15 percent of the eligible adults vaccinated during that period. State health officials still said Wednesday that they were happy with the program and were exploring other ways to incentivize people to get the vaccine as roughly 350,000 eligible Mainers aged 12 and older remain unvaccinated, according to federal data. (Piper, 6/2)

In other updates on the vaccine rollout —

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland To Close Mass COVID Vaccination Sites At M&T Bank Stadium, Ripken Stadium 
Maryland officials are beginning to wind down some of the mass coronavirus vaccination sites, beginning with the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. Ripken Stadium will close this month and M&T will close next month, according to officials with Harford County and the Maryland Stadium Authority. (Cohn, 6/2)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Health Department To Launch COVID Vaccine Texting Campaign
Oklahomans can expect to get texts beginning this week from the Oklahoma Health Department with information about COVID-19 vaccinations. The department is launching a statewide texting campaign to reach people across the state with details about how to find an appointment near them. The state Health Department said the texts will be sent to residents in areas across the state with lower vaccination rates. The campaign will target adults ages 18 to 54 in rural areas, excluding the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas. (Branham, 6/3)

The CT Mirror: 'A Dividing Line' — Vaccination Rates Trace Socioeconomic Boundaries In CT
Liany Arroyo, the director of the Hartford Health Department, spends a lot of her time studying neighborhoods in Hartford and finding patterns in their vaccination rates. The downtown areas of Hartford and those that lie to the west of the city show higher vaccination rates in general. Other neighborhoods have sharply lower rates. “The West End is a more affluent neighborhood,” Arroyo said. “There’s a dividing line there.” (Pananjady and Altimari, 6/3)

AARP: Nursing Home Worker Goes From Vaccine Skeptic To Advocate
Nursing home worker Adelina Ramos identifies with colleagues who are skeptical about getting the COVID-19 vaccine because she once was, too. "I was, like, uh-uh. I don't trust the vaccine,” Ramos, 35, remembers thinking before it became available at Greenville Center, the Rhode Island nursing home where she's worked for five years. ... But the certified nursing assistant (CNA) has since become an advocate for vaccination among her coworkers. Her labor union has asked her to speak with other CNAs who have not yet been vaccinated. She even testified in Congress about the lack of vaccine education for her and her colleagues. (Ravitz, 6/2)

Detroit Free Press: House Passes Bill Banning Government-Sponsored Vaccine Passports
Any publicly funded entity in Michigan, including local school districts and universities, would be prohibited from requiring a COVID-19 vaccination under a controversial bill passed Wednesday in the state House. The measure, HB 4667, attempts to ban government-sanctioned vaccine passports, an effort supporters say limits state access to confidential health information. But opponents note the measure — touted by pandemic conspiracy theorists — is unnecessary and will likely lead to unanticipated negative consequences. (Boucher, 6/2)

In updates from California —

Los Angeles Times: Rural California Is Falling Behind In COVID Vaccine Rates
Some rural counties in Northern California are falling further behind in COVID-19 vaccination rates compared with the rest of the state, causing cases to remain flat or, in some cases, to rise. A Times analysis found that the counties with the lowest vaccination rates were likely to have higher recent case rates per capita. Counties in rural Northern California and the greater Sacramento area fared worst, while Southern California and the Bay Area have fared best in terms of higher rates of vaccination and lower daily case rates, the analysis found. (Money, Lin II and Greene, 6/2)

Bay Area News Group: Alameda County Wasted Most Coronavirus Vaccine Doses In California
A Bay Area county sits atop an unfortunate list. Alameda County has wasted more coronavirus vaccine doses than any other county in California, according to The Sacramento Bee, which based its reporting on data obtained through a public records request. The data, which the Bee shared with this news organization, shows the East Bay county tossed 7,055 shots, or 0.39% of the more than 1.8 million it received. That’s three times more than any other Bay Area County wasted. More than 6,000 of Alameda’s wasted doses were spoiled Pfizer vaccines, which must be kept at very cold temperatures and used quickly after they are thawed. (DeRuy, 6/2)

AP: Even Vaccinated California Workers May Have To Keep Masks On
California is set to fully reopen in less than two weeks and do away with virtually all mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people, but those who regulate workplaces in the state aren’t ready to go that far and that has business groups upset. The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meets Thursday and will consider new workplace rules that would only allow workers to go maskless if everyone in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The rules could remain in place into early next year even though coronavirus cases have fallen dramatically after a severe winter spike and as more people are vaccinated. (Thompson, 6/3)