Game Theory in COVID-19 Vaccinations
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/upshot/vaccine-incentive-experiment.html
There is a multitude of information and guidance on the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine but there are still many unvaccinated in the United States. In an effort to increase vaccination rates, people have looked into offering incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated. This article from NYTimes outlines an interesting phenomenon where vaccine incentives may have different effects on vaccination rates, depending on the demographics of those who are receiving the shot. Offering money as an incentive was surveyed, and it was found that while it did increase overall willingness to get vaccinated, it decreased willingness to get vaccinated for some people. NYTimes also surveyed people on their willingness to get vaccinated if masking restrictions were loosened if they got vaccinated, which also had different effects on different groups. In these scenarios, it was found that the incentive of money was most effective on Democrats who were not yet vaccinated, and the incentive of going maskless was most effective for unvaccinated Republicans.
This scenario is important to consider in game theory because there are a lot of different strategies that are being used, with different payoffs for the government, as well as for those who are unvaccinated. The government is thinking about playing the strategies of different incentives which include, but are not limited to, monetary incentives and talks about going maskless, and those who still haven’t been vaccinated are still debating between the tradeoffs of sticking with the status quo of staying unvaccinated, and getting the vaccine in order to get the incentive (and the safety that the vaccine promises). This is also relevant because those who are unvaccinated are using strategies to avoid COVID-19, such as avoiding indoor gatherings and such. There are a lot of strategies that come into play when determining how to get unvaccinated people to get vaccinated.
