OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington’s vaccine lottery held its final drawing Tuesday morning for anyone who’s been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The last cash jackpot for the “Shot of a Lifetime” sweepstakes is $1 million.
Four $250,000 prizes have already been awarded.
Washington’s Lottery oversaw the selection of 369 numbers in the final drawing for the promotion around 8 a.m. The state health department will now match those numbers to people in the state’s Immunization Information System. Officials will then begin calling, emailing and texting the winners.
Other than the $1 million jackpot, among the 369 prizes are Seahawks tickets, Xbox consoles, concert tickets, Seattle Reign tickets, a Seattle Storm prize package, Nintendo Switch Packs, Mariners tickets and others.
In the Federal Way area, with ZIP code 98003, there is about an 18% hesitancy rate to get the vaccine. That’s the second-highest in all of King County.
South and east King County are showing a significantly higher percentage of vaccine-hesitant people.
So, the question arises: did the vaccine lottery have any impact in these areas?
Public health experts said such lotteries don’t change public opinion. They believe the small chance of winning a big windfall isn’t enough to sway the majority of unvaccinated Americans who strongly oppose the vaccine.
So far, winners of other large cash prizes have included a Yakima resident, a nursing student from Spokane and a Walla Walla food service worker who almost didn’t return the call.
Tuesday’s winner will be contacted on Wednesday and has 72 hours to respond. If that person doesn’t respond, the prize will be given to an alternate winner.
Meanwhile, starting a week from Tuesday, Washington veterans will have their own chance to win. This includes people who were vaccinated through the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Military personnel, veterans and others were not eligible for the “Shot of a Lifetime” lottery because their information was not was not being shared with the state, so Gov. Jay Inslee had the state set up drawings just for them. They include a pair of $100,000 prizes and a $250,000 grand prize.