Ohio Prepares to Announce First “Vax-A-Million” Winner

Ohio will announce its first “vax-a-millionaire” tonight. 

At 7:29 pm, the first winner in the state’s million-dollar vaccination lottery will be announced.  The state will also announce its first winner of a full-college scholarship.

Governor Mike DeWine announced the “vax-a-million” lottery and the corresponding college scholarship drawings for younger Ohioans during a statewide address on May 12.

The idea is to incentivize getting the COVID-19 vaccine to persuade the hesitant to get the shot and turn around Ohio’s faltering vaccination rates.

While vaccine distribution began strongly in Ohio, with high demand amid limited supply, by April the script had flipped.  April saw vaccination demand drop and the state taking only a portion of shots offered to it each week.

 “Vax-A-Million” has earned the state global attention and criticism. 

It has also generated a number of questions about the mechanics of how the drawing will work.

The economic impact of the pandemic and the effort implemented to control the spread of the coronavirus has been enormous.  Jobs and businesses have been lost.  But, the impact of the pandemic has not been spread evenly across workers. 

Last week, Team NEO, the regional and economic development group released a report that look specifically at the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on women and women-owned businesses.

The report titled, “Lost Opportunities: The Pandemic's Impact on Northeast Ohio's Working Women” found a steep decline in the labor force with women four times as likely to leave the workforce than men regardless of marital status.

Those departures were driven by the additional challenges created by the pandemic that fell to women such as childcare and remote schooling.

And while the pandemic may be loosening its grip, it is likely that the workplace may be forever changed.

Research has shown how students across the country have fallen behind in reading and math, due to the pandemic.

Specific to Ohio ,  an Ohio State University analysis of fall test scores from Kindergarden through 12th grade students showed students overall losing a third of learning -- on average -- and that black students have been set back as much as half a year's worth of learning.

Throughout our education reporting series, Learning Curve, ideastream working in partnership with W-K-S-U, reporters have spent time looking into lost learning and how it has affected students and disricts and what is being done to address it. 

Tonight at 6  we want to involve you in a community discussion about learning loss. It is the second in our Learning Curve Community Tour series, taking place on Facebook Live. It will be hosted by ideastream Executive Editor Mike McIntyre, and will feature reporters, educators, and experts, for an hour-long interactive discussion.

If you are unable to listen to the discussion this evening, we will bring it to you on Tuesday, June 1 on The Sound of Ideas.

For More Information:

Team NEO: Lost Opportunities: The Pandemic's Impact on Northeast Ohio's Working Women Report

Andy Chow, Reporter, Statehouse News Bureau, Ohio Public Radio/TV 

Jacob Duritsky, Vice President Strategy & Research, Team NEO 
Kimberly Riley, President, Hylant Cleveland 

Foluke Omosun, Reporter, WKSU 
Natalie Pillsbury, Director of Advancement and Special Projects