Reluctant Swedes will be paid $30 to have Covid vaccine

Swedish volunteers will be paid to be immunised in Europe’s largest test of whether small cash incentives improve jab uptake.

Convincing sceptics and waverers to be inoculated is central to most countries’ hopes of curbing the pandemic. Picture: AFP

Swedish volunteers will be paid $30 each to be immunised in Europe’s largest test of whether small cash incentives can improve vaccine uptake.

Convincing sceptics and waverers to be inoculated is central to most countries’ hopes of curbing the pandemic, but there is much debate about the best way to persuade them.

Some nations, such as France, have made vaccination compulsory for certain groups, while Germany and others have suggested that the vaccinated could be exempted from restrictions.

The Swedish study, led by Erik Wengstrom, an economics professor at Lund University, uses gentler methods.

Over the next few weeks 8200 unvaccinated people under the age of 60 will be split into different groups. Some will be given a voucher worth 200 Swedish kronor ($30) that can be used in most shops if they are vaccinated.

The money is a fraction of the sums being discussed in other countries, but Wengstrom said there was evidence from the US that as little $34 was enough to persuade people.

He said: “People might have the intention to get vaccinated, but maybe there’s a little bit of hassle involved and something always gets in the way, so a small incentive might help.”

Other participants will be subjected to “nudge” techniques — attempts to influence people’s behaviour by guiding them towards a particular choice.

Some will be given leaflets about the vaccines’ benefits and side effects; others will be asked to think of the best argument to persuade others to have the vaccine. A third group will be told to draw up a list of their loved ones. “That’s basically encouraging them to think about how the vaccination might protect others,” Wengstrom said.

Sweden has fully vaccinated just under half of its population and uptake is about the same in Germany and Italy. Sweden’s infection rate remains relatively low by European standards, but recently there have been outbreaks in several cities. Last week case numbers rose by 50 per cent in Vastra Gotaland county, around Gothenburg.

After relatively lax Covid restrictions, the government passed a national infection control law in the winter that served as the basis for a number of tougher restrictions.

Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist and architect of the hands-off response, said this did not mean the original strategy had been a failure.

The Times