# Is it ethical to pay someone to get the Covid vaccine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 5, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426 "2021-05-05T12:01:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/21 "2021-05-05T14:32:30Z")
> [@turtlescanfly](#): > > Is no one taking up the “unethical” side of the argument? I don’t think there is such a side. Your wife has stated that it is unethical to incentivize (or at least to financially incentivize) vaccination. I don’t know if she made any actual arguments to you, but if she did, you haven’t presented them here. Basically, all I see is some argument to authority, i.e., her supposed authority as a medical professional, and the supposed authority of other unnamed professionals. Which doesn’t fly as an argument. > [@turtlescanfly](#): > > . . . believing it might be an undo influence to someone who might not want to be vaccinated. That’s the closest thing to an argument in your OP, and I don’t think there’s any substance to it. As I said above, I’d be perfectly happy to administer the vaccine to refusers at gunpoint, which is a way bigger “undue influence” than a couple hundred bucks. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/22 "2021-05-05T14:36:13Z")
I would think, ‘unless you’re vaccinated you can’t: fly, take public transit, stay in a hotel, attend a show!’, would be, for most people, closer to actually coercive, than a cash incentive. But those are likely to become realities. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/23 "2021-05-05T14:49:39Z")
As noted above, companies can legally make getting the vaccine a condition of employment. This is actually quite prevalent in the medical community. Does the OP’s spouse believe that it would be unethical if her employer required her to get the vaccine as a condition of her employment? I would assume the answer would be yes. Making employment an incentive to get the vaccine, is much more egregious in that sense than giving someone $300 to get the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/25 "2021-05-05T15:09:23Z")
That there was an appeal to ethics classes makes me think that there’s some widely-quoted rule being remembered in a jumbled-up way and then regurgitated years down the line shorn of any context, like how everyone knows there’s a thing called “freedom of speech” but the actual way it works is almost never how people think. Like, I’m sure that medical ethics texts really _do_ talk about coercion, but I suspect that what they actually say is not really related to this situation. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/26 "2021-05-05T15:19:48Z")
> [@turtlescanfly](#): > > Thanks for all the responses so far. Is no one taking up the “unethical” side of the argument? According to my wife, she talked to several coworkers ( all nurses) and they all agreed that it was unethical. This frightens me. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/27 "2021-05-05T18:02:33Z")
There’s a possible “ethical question” for a potentially government mandating vaccination - like, get vaccinated or go to jail where you’re strapped down and forcibly vaccinated - but we’re far from being there at as a society in the USA. The question of offering free donuts, a free beer, or an outright cash incentive for people to get vaccinated is basically the same “ethics” as any other incentive offer for a desired outcome. Is it “unethical” for GEICO to give a 10% premium discount for people who’ve sat through an online driver safety course and passed its quizzes? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/28 "2021-05-05T18:15:49Z")
The ethics of offering $300 depends on the intent behind it. It would be unethical if, say, someone with a connection to Pfizer (or Moderna, J&J, others) were offering incentives as a way to get some kind of kickback. But otherwise, no, I don’t see the conflict, especially when you consider that we will probably need 70-80% of the population vaccinated in order to slow down the spread of the virus in a meaningful way. I’m not bitter that holdouts are going to get incentives that the rest of us didn’t - that’s not important. What’s important is that they get vaccinated and that we protect the entire population. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/29 "2021-05-05T18:18:57Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Your wife has stated that it is unethical to incentivize (or at least to financially incentivize) vaccination. Thing is, they already do this with the flu vaccine. Or at least have done it. I remember a couple years ago getting a flu vaccine at Target because they offered a $5 gift card if you got it. Where is the ethical problem? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/30 "2021-05-05T18:51:41Z")
The only way I could see this as “unethical” is if you saw the vaccine as either highly risky or against deeply held beliefs. Like, if a company offered money to people to eat ham or something, that would be unethical simply because it’s trying to fuck with people’s religious beliefs for no good reason. Or if the shot really was dangerous-dangerous, like it carried a 1% chance of death or serious injury. Then, incentivizing it might be a matter of trying to get people to act against their self-interest. But if that were the case, it wouldn’t have been approved. I guess what I am saying is that your wife’s position only makes sense if you reject the premise that the vaccine is safe, if you think it’s reasonable to have real concerns about the safety of receiving it. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/31 "2021-05-05T19:00:59Z")
Devil’s advocate position. It is unethical because it breaks medical privacy. You can compile a list of people who you have given 300 dollars to and therefore have had the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/32 "2021-05-05T19:03:23Z")
Not unethical at all. Nor would it be unethical to require employees to get the vaccine. Getting sick from covid will cost the company a lot and cost the insurance company a lot (which means higher premiums for everyone, which we can expect next year, thank you covidiots). It is a cost cutting measure. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/33 "2021-05-05T19:38:54Z")
Considering that we are making vaccine passports to allow you to attend events if you are vaccinated, I really don’t see that is a big deal. You could compile a list of students in a school, and therefore the students who have the required vaccines to attend school. You could compile a list of employees, and therefore the employees who were not fired for refusing the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/34 "2021-05-05T19:43:07Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > You could compile a list of students in a school, and therefore the students who have the required vaccines to attend school. You could compile a list of employees, and therefore the employees who were not fired for refusing the vaccine. But potentially there could be some number of medical exemptions to the vaccine included in those other lists. Not so for the paid $300 list. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/35 "2021-05-05T19:44:31Z")
Ok, you’re right. Now go apologize to your wife if you want to put an end to it. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/36 "2021-05-05T19:53:41Z")
I don’t see anything unethical about it. The correlated issue that comes up, however, is whether or not it’s ethical for other companies to NOT pay their employees to be vaccinated. That’s a trickier question, and I’ll have to think about that one for a while before offering up an opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/37 "2021-05-05T19:56:23Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > Devil’s advocate position. It is unethical because it breaks medical privacy. You can compile a list of people who you have given 300 dollars to and therefore have had the vaccine. The list of people who’ve had the vaccine already exists. This is a non-issue. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/38 "2021-05-05T19:58:21Z")
> [@turtlescanfly](#): > > Thanks for all the responses so far. Is no one taking up the “unethical” side of the argument? According to my wife, she talked to several coworkers ( all nurses) and they all agreed that it was unethical. I suspect there are some closet anti-vaxxers among your wife’s colleagues. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/39 "2021-05-05T20:02:32Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > It is unethical because it breaks medical privacy. I don’t believe this is true. The medical privacy laws are to prevent people with medical information about a patient from giving out that information without consent. There’s nothing that prevents the patient from giving out that information, and that’s exactly what accepting the $300 is doing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/40 "2021-05-05T20:08:49Z")
And if a person really valued their medical privacy, they could go and get the vaccine without telling their employer. That option exists. It doesn’t look like a very appealing option to me, but then again, choosing not to get vaccinated also doesn’t look very appealing to me, either, and some people choose that. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426/41 "2021-05-05T20:45:07Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > The correlated issue that comes up, however, is whether or not it’s ethical for other companies to NOT pay their employees to be vaccinated. There could be lots of reasons for a company to not pay their employees to get the vaccine like they prefer a stick to a carrot so they’ve told their employees it’s a condition for further employment. The company could be 100% remote and so any risk the employee takes is on them alone. I don’t think you’re going to make it to immoral until you get to companies like the one in the Pit right now that make not getting the vaccine a condition of employment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-to-get-the-covid-vaccine/941426.md?page=3)