Throughout this process, people had perverse incentives to lie. For example, a person could lie or exaggerate about the extent to which she was immunocompromised. That term was broadly understood. And there was no real way of linking a particular health condition to COVID. A person who did not want to work in a crowded workplace had an incentive to embellish a health condition. There were similar perverse incentives for declaring “comorbidities.” Take “obesity” for example. Many people who would not generally call themselves “obese” would promptly check that box if it helped them get a vaccine quicker. There is also the issue of bribery. I know that people paid money under the table to get the vaccines quicker. Finally, there is the issue of testing and quarantining. We were all on the honor system. A person could conceal her symptoms, or chalk a cough up to allergies. There was no way to track these sorts of things.
A recent paper published by Journal of American Medical Association considers how often parents lied about COVID during the pandemic.
[Incentives drive behavior. The mandates and lockdowns set up a number of perverse incentives, especially regarding access to basic amenities. But the real problem with perverse ethics didn’t occur in vaccinations but in relief funds. The incentives set and the lack of checks on the process resulted in massive fraud, much of which will never be calculated or recovered. — Ed]
Join the conversation as a VIP Member