Gov. Parson announces first ‘MO VIP’ winners
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Gov. Mike Parson's office announced the first round of MO VIP winners Wednesday.
MO VIP is the state's vaccine incentive program offering $10,000 cash to adults chosen and a $10,000 scholarship for adolescents chosen.
"They were on the fence about whether or not to get vaccinated and, and this was kind of that little push that they needed," said Lisa Cox, with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Of the 180 winners randomly selected in the first of the program’s five drawings, 170 have been fully verified.
A registered nurse with twin babies and a child who has a sister with cystic fibrosis were among the winners.
You can find the full list of winners here.
"About 400,000 doses have been administered since the launch of the program on the 21st now, and we do hope that the incentive program is is partially responsible for that, but really it doesn't matter what is driving people to get vaccinated as long as they're making that choice," Cox said.
At the time of the Aug. 13 drawing, a total of 495,296 MO VIP entries were received.
Cox says some of the winners were actually skeptical they had actually won.
"We're always telling people to hang up on the scammers but this time it's not a scam and you really want the Missouri vaccine incentive program so I'm honest, that was probably the biggest challenge of it all is just kind of overcoming the fear of being scammed," Cox said.
Anyone who has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the deadline can enter at any time for the drawings at MOStopsCovid.com.
Once a Missourian enters, their entry will be carried over through all the drawings. There is no need to enter more than once. The entry list will be reviewed, and duplicate entries will be removed prior to each drawing. All winners will all have their vaccination status verified.
Each of the five drawings will generate 180 winners, for a total of 900 winners overall.
The next drawing will take place this Friday, but entries must be entered online by 11:59 p.m. tonight.
"Sharing stories, personal stories among your own, you know, within your own community among people that you know love trust is one of the most impactful things we can do to help increase vaccination," Cox said.
