City-Run Vaccine Sites to Provide $100 to New Yorkers who Get their Shots, Starting Friday

By Yehudit Garmaise

     Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has issued mandates that the city’s workers get vaccinated, “still believes in incentives: this time it is $100 cash for New Yorkers who get their shots.

     “Starting on Friday, we will provide at city-run vaccine sites, when you get your first dose, you will get an $100 incentive for any New Yorker,” the mayor said this morning. “We will say thank you: for yourself, for your family, for your community.

     “Thank you for doing the right thing.

     “We want to spread the message that we are giving New Yorkers $100 to get vaccinated in every language to provide the maximum number of people with their shots.”

      Once first doses of vaccinations are completeed, the $100 will be delivered as debit cards that are delivered to e-mail addresses or mailed to home addresses.

     "It is quite simple," said Rachel Loeb, the president and CEO at New York City Economic Development Corporation, who created many of the city's many incentives to increase vaccination rates, said that New York City residents and employees can go online "to find qualified state-run vaccination sites, and you will be issued a $100 pre-paid debit card.

     "If you have an e-mail address, you can redeem it immediately, and you can be issued a digital card. You can even get your card while you are waiting during your observation period [right after you get your shot, when health care experts watch to make sure those who are vaccinated do not have any negative reactions.]

     "If you don't have an e-mail address, a physical debit card will be mailed to you at the address you enter when you book your appointment.

     "After you get your first vaccine dose, you go back to the same website: dash incentives, and you choose your $100."

     Not only will you get $100, the mayor said, you will also qualify to do anything you want in the city. 

     “You will have freedom,” said the mayor, who added that the city is on the verge of having provided 10 million vaccine doses. “It does not get better than that.

     “The key to our recovery is vaccinations. If you want to enjoy life to the fullest: get vaccinated."

     The mayor, who was happy to "supercharge the vaccination effort by providing an extra, direct, and personal incentive to get this now," said that the city has provided different incentives with varying degrees of success, but he believes that "the guarantee that right then and there, you are going to be rewarded, that is going to make a big difference to people.

      "There are a huge number of New Yorkers open to vaccination, but just 'haven't quite gotten there.'

    "But when someone says, 'Here is $100 for you,' that is going to make a big impact: particularly in a world in which more and more things are going to be determined by whether or not you are vaccinated.

   "That is where things are going."

 Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.