DARRELL WASHINGTON AND Daniela Maldonado are the first two winners of the state’s VaxMillions lottery. Washington won $1 million as a prize for getting vaccinated against COVID-19, while Maldonado won a $300,000 scholarship grant.
Maldonado, 15, a rising sophomore at Chelsea High School, said her family is low-income, and it was going to be hard for her to continue her education. She has her eye on Boston University and the University of Massachusetts, with interests in history and math. “Now I’m able to achieve goals that I’ve wanted to do, but would have not been able to do if I hadn’t had this scholarship,” Maldonado said at a press conference in the governor’s office.
Washington, a 63-year-old case manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield, could not say how he would spend the money. But he said he is considering retirement – and his newfound windfall will play into that decision.
Gov. Charlie Baker instituted the lottery as a way to incentivize people to get vaccinated.
There will be five weekly lotteries from now through August 23. Each week, one adult will win $1 million. One teenager, age 12 to 17, will win a $300,000 scholarship grant toward any institution of higher education. Participants must be fully vaccinated to enter the drawings.
The drawing was done Monday, but the state took three days to verify that the winners were actually vaccinated in Massachusetts and give the winners time to respond.
As CommonWealth previously reported, there is no evidence that the lottery actually drove up vaccinations, as the rate of vaccinations has been falling. Both Washington and Maldonado got vaccinated as soon as they were able to, in April and May respectively, before the lottery was announced.
But Baker noted at a recent press conference that despite Massachusetts having one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, the state has continued to deliver between 7,000 and 10,000 shots daily. Since the VaxMillions lottery was announced, health workers in Massachusetts have administered around 200,000 first shots, and 330,000 people have become fully vaccinated.
Around 2.3 million people signed up for the lottery, out of 4.3 million Massachusetts residents who are fully vaccinated.
“It is one of many tools in the toolbox with respect to continuing to encourage some of the folks who haven’t gotten vaccinated to get vaccinated,” Baker said Monday.
Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, whose office runs the lottery, said Thursday, “If we save one life in this state, it’s worth it.”
Both winners said they initially did not believe that they had won. Maldonado said she first thought it was a scam. Washington said he Googled the name of the public health official who contacted him before believing it was real.
Washington, speaking at the press conference, said it was important to him to get vaccinated because he has family members with comorbidities. “I just couldn’t imagine me being a host for the virus then getting them sick, critically ill, possibly passing away. I couldn’t do that,” he said.
Washington said he respects people’s concerns about vaccine safety but urged them to think about their families. “I think people should really just turn off a lot of people on TV and just really ask yourself is your child, is your spouse, is your grandparent, are they worth you getting a vaccination. That risk seems to be very, very easy for me to resolve. And I think you will too,” he said.
