Beat the Pandemic and Win $1million by playing the Kerala Lottery

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Let’s get one thing right off the bat here, the pandemic has been a sore point in the year 2020. A little unknown virus that we heard rumours about eventually spread beyond China and infected the entire world. Yes, we have had disasters and catastrophic events before this but there were mostly confined to certain regions of the globe. This has spread like wildfire, and it seems that no country has been fully immune to its effects.

In order to combat this virus, a vaccine was created that was met with resistance when it came to its adoption. Some countries such as the UK have been forthcoming and are now enjoying the highest immunisation in the world whereas other countries such as Brazil have had a slower uptake. The United States of America with the ousting of former president Trump, has finally started to accept the positive aspects of the vaccine. Despite that it was deemed necessary by the government to introduce further incentives so their citizens could start getting the vaccines.

One such incentive was the introduction of a COVID-19 lottery. All that was required from the citizens was to get their jab and throw their hat in the lottery pool. Shelly Wyramon, a teacher from Winston-Salem became the first winner of the $1million lottery on June 28, 2021. Five days after the first drawing, winners of the college scholarship were also announced.

To win the $1 million lottery, you were required to be over the age of 18 and for the college scholarship, entries aged between 12 to 17 were accepted. Wyramon is ecstatic after winning the lottery and has encouraged more people to get their jabs. Her initial reasoning for getting the jabs was so that she could visit her friends and family. In fact, Wyramon was not convinced she had won the grand prize until Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services gave her a call. The video call by Cohen was enough validation for Wyramon that she had won the lottery.

The only thing to consider for Wyramon is that taxes still need to be paid on her winnings. For the college scholarship, a place into the college is not guaranteed and that is something the students need to look after themselves. Also, another stipulation for both drawings is that those that had entered had to have received at least one dose of the vaccine, either from Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson. For those citizens that had their jabs taken between June 10 and June 20 when the entries for the first drawing closed had their names entered in the draw twice.

Alternate names were also drawn in case the winners were not eligible or refused. However, both winners of draw met the necessary conditions and the back up names were therefore not required. The odds of winning the vaccine lottery are set at 1 to 4 million which are less compared to the Powerball which has odds pegged at 1 in 11.6 million according to the N.C Education Lottery. The draws are conducted by the state lottery via random number generator on a system that does not store any private medical information. There is more good news for citizens getting their jabs are three more are scheduled for the rest of summer with the next one taking place on July 7.

Maybe the vaccine lottery is not a bad idea and should be adopted by other countries as well. India is one that comes to mind where the pandemic has been particularly devasting causing multiple lockdowns and making life difficult for the people. The good news there is that people in India love to play the lottery. While online cricket betting and online casinos may be considered taboo and are not supported by legislation, lottery is perfectly legal in many parts of the country. There are daily lotteries such as the Kerala Lottery where Indians can take part in without the fear of being persecuted by the government. For a country where 60 percent of the population (812 million) live below the poverty line, this will be a great incentive to take the covid jabs.