Minnesota Governor Tim Walz introduced a cash incentive program to encourage parents to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. The program, called “Kids Deserve a Shot,” was announced in January 2022 and offered $200 to families who got their children aged 5 to 11 “fully vaccinated” against the virus.
Walz, who is the Democratic vice presidential nominee, promoted the initiative on social media, stating, “Big news: Starting this month, families who get their 5- to 11-year-olds vaccinated can get $200! That’s cash in your pocket for starting the year off right by protecting your child from COVID.”
To be eligible for the incentive, parents or guardians had to provide proof that their children received both doses of the vaccine between January 1 and February 28, 2022. Walz introduced the program amidst a surge in the Omicron variant, emphasizing the need to keep families safe.
“As Omicron surges across our nation, we’re continuing to use every resource we have to keep our families safe and healthy,” Walz said in a statement. “There’s a lot of highly transmissible virus circulating in our communities, but getting our children 5-11 years old vaccinated gives them critical protection against severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19 and helps keep them in school.”
Walz first introduced the vaccine incentive program in Fall 2021 and even offered $100,000 scholarships to students who got vaccinated, according to Breitbart.
The governor has faced criticism for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, he implemented a hotline for residents to report neighbors who were not following his government-mandated COVID orders.