It's 4.30pm on May 29, 2021. The MySejahtera app says 11,788,915 people have registered for the Covid-19 vaccines.
In Malaysia, registration and inoculation are growing, though some folks would argue that the pace seems glacial at best.
In the United States, the numbers looked incredibly inspiring at first. Then the icy winds of winter (a nod to George R.R. Martin) blew through the land, figuratively speaking.
The midwestern state of Ohio is thawing the metaphorical ice. It launched a lottery to encourage more people to sign up for the jab, says the BBC.
The prize money? US$1 million for each draw. There are four more to go, in case you are wondering.
The lottery is producing the desired effects, so the story goes. The governor waxed lyrical about the surge in the number of vaccine registrations.
Other states are betting on this approach, too. Besides money, there are scholarships, tickets to NBA games and free beer.
Should we in Malaysia tread the same path? Give a couple of houses, cars and what-not?
The fact is, there's quite a bit of debate about the idea of offering people incentives to get inoculated. Would any religion 'reprimand' this?
It seems to me perverse — at first — that something of monetary value must be given to persuade a person to take a vaccine that will save his life.
I imagine this is what that someone would say: "Yeah, the vaccine is free. And lines of leaders and endless experts say it is good for me. But you know, there are tonnes of others who say otherwise. And what do I really get anyway in subjecting myself to this great vaccine experiment? I'll just wait it out until a good reason comes along. And decide then."
So this fellow needs "a good reason" to get across the line, and US$1 million may do just fine.
But perhaps we should not be repulsed by this instinct. The world is a strange place. There are people bizarre and baffling in abundance, unconventional and perhaps illogical, too. The Vulcan, Spock, would be perplexed. But the betrayed Timon of Athens would understand perfectly.
These folks — different from you, yet the same — have always been there. You are seeing more of them because of the breadth and depth of social media.
Material things move them in the way faith moves mountains. The prize money awakens the visceral excitement of the materialistic being that we all are (but which many of us vigorously and vainly struggle against).
So let's not be judgmental. If prizes can move the registration figures into the stratosphere, or close to it, we may want to give them a thought. Perhaps it is time to thaw the ice and melt the hesitancy. And get the MySejahtera vaccine registration out of winter into spring and summer.
The writer is NST Production Editor
