When it comes to convincing West Virginians to get the COVID-19 vaccine, as a state, we’ve tried gentle encouragement, laying out the cold hard facts and even bribery, but less than half the state is fully vaccinated.
Now, it’s time for Plan D(elta).
Gov. Jim Justice’s plan to encourage people to get vaccinated by offering lavish lottery prizes has seen limited success. When he first announced the lottery back in May, only about 40% of West Virginians 12 and older were fully vaccinated. As of the time of this writing, fully vaccinated rates for 12+ have bumped to 56% (about 48% for the entire state’s population), which is certainly an improvement but still well short of the 70% needed for herd immunity. The at-least-one-dose rate is about 59% for the entire population, but one dose alone is not effective against the Delta variant. Unfortunately, with only two lottery drawings left, daily vaccination counts are steadily dropping.
Since bribery hasn’t been as effective as we’d hoped, it’s time the state considered a more parental, you-can’t-have-dessert-until-you-eat-your-vegetables approach: No vaccine, no football.
At the moment, WVU plans to have 100% capacity at the stadium when West Virginia’s favorite pastime starts up in the fall, according to Shane Lyons. That plan, of course, is subject to change between now and September’s home-opener, and we think limiting capacity to vaccinated fans only should be considered.
It seems there are legal grounds for such a plan. A federal court upheld Indiana University’s right to mandate all students, staff and faculty receive the COVID-19 vaccine before returning in the fall — which means a university-wide vaccine mandate would not be unheard of and would have a legal precedent. There is also legal precedent for a business to require staff to be vaccinated as well as to ask customers for proof of vaccination. Despite some social media claims, this is not a violation of HIPAA; HIPAA does not prohibit businesses from inquiring about and asking for verification of your vaccination status.
With all that established, here’s Plan D(elta): In order to be granted entry to the stadium for home football games this fall, fans must provide proof of vaccination along with their tickets.
Certain reasonable accommodations would have to be made, of course. Anyone who is medically unable to receive the vaccination could show a doctor’s note, and unvaccinated people turned away could be refunded for that game, assuming they bought their ticket through the university.
Depending on how bad the state’s COVID numbers look this fall, Plan D(elta) could be applied to high school football as well.
At the moment, WVU is not mandating university students be fully vaccinated before returning and Justice isn’t keen on the idea either, so they’ll likely be hesitant to make football fans prove their vaccination status. Since some people can’t be bribed with money and trucks and guns to save their own lives and the lives of others, maybe threatening to take away something they care about will work. If the Delta variant hits us as hard as it’s starting to hit other states and vaccination rates aren’t up by September, this could be West Virginia’s Hail Mary.
