MORGANTOWN – Online registration for the vaccine lottery will open at 5 p.m. Friday, Gov. Jim Justice announced Thursday.
Justice brought Baby Dog to his desk for part of Thursday’s briefing to promote the lottery and urge residents to get vaccinated. He’s dubbed the lottery “Do it for Baby Dog – Save a Life, Change Your Life.”
If you don’t get vaccinated, he said, you’re missing the opportunity not only to win prizes but to protect your health and that of your loved ones.
He waved Baby Dog’s paw at the camera and said, “You can’t possibly turn her down. How can you possibly turn down this face?”
To be eligible for the lottery, a resident must have had at least one vaccine shot. As previously reported, the first weekly drawing will be June 20. Prizes offered June 20 are: two 4-year scholarships for ages 12-25 to any institution in West Virginia; two new custom outfitted trucks; 25 weekend getaways to state parks; five lifetime hunting and fishing licenses; five custom hunting rifles and five custom shotguns; and the biggie – $1 million for someone.
Justice clarified that, contrary to what some have been told, state employees are eligible for the drawings. The only people excluded are Lottery employees and Justice himself.
Currently, 59% of the eligible population age 12 and up have had one shot; 47.5% are fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh said the United Kingdom is seeing the consequences of people getting their first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine (Johnson & Johnson is a single dose) and not following through with the second shot.
The UK is experiencing breakthrough cases of COVID variants among those who haven’t been fully immunized, he said, so it’s important to take the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna.
Some people are worried or skeptical about the vaccines, he said, because the FDA has OK’d them through Emergency Use Authorizations and they haven’t completed the full approval process.
Marsh said the FDA created the EUA process after the 9-11 attacks in order to quickly move life-saving treatments to the populace without all the red tape. The assessment for EUA and for full authorization are the same.
The vaccine makers are in the process of obtaining full approval for their vaccines, he said, but that takes about 10 months and without the EUAs more people would have gotten sick and died.
“We see in real-world use that they are incredibly effective and they’re also incredibly safe,” he said.
Non-COVID topics
Justice announced he’ll call a special session of the Legislature on Monday, when legislators are in town for the Sunday-Tuesday interim meetings, to pass some financial measures.
He’ll put before them, he said, bills to appropriate federal American Rescue Plan funds dedicated to the Department of Health and Human Resources and the Department of Education.
He’ll also put before them, he said, a bill to put $150 million of surplus money to road maintenance. The money would go to 402 Division of Highways projects across all 55 counties: 742.84 miles of paving (chiefly potholes and such), 17 slips and slides, 40 bridge project and 111 categorized as “other.”
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