Joint For Jab Or Beer For Shot?

Washington

offers

beer

for

Covid

Vaccine

…

In an attempt at being lighthearted and appealing to younger people, the Biden administration made a full-throated statement on

“Beer

and a

Shot”.

The vaguely camouflaged gimmick had succeeded in not only encouraging herd immunity amongst fence-sitters but also rampant alcohol consumption.

Can I get a Hip-hip… hooray?

Much like the beer-shot cocktail, AKA Boilermaker, this ploy for compliance is the stuff of incubating alcoholism and Perdue undergrads attempting to assimilate in the world of drinking something other than alcohol hidden in sugary kid stuff.

In this case, it was a cheeky saying to get a free beer for getting a covid vaccine. So what’s the problem? Nothing really. For adults, the overwhelmingly vast majority of those who choose to drink do so safely. Most people are unimpaired users of alcohol, that’s also true of other drugs but America doesn’t like those stats.

The program goes a bit sideways for a few reasons. The first question is, should there be a bribe for a health decision? Get the vaccine, don’t get the vaccine, talk to your doctor and make the best decision for you, do we need to factor a free beer into the decision? The next question is, should the incentive involve alcohol? The CDC suggests abstaining from alcohol around a covid vaccine. While they don’t specifically say “don’t” it’s fairly clear that alcohol use impairs the immune system, so for those who choose the vaccine, why give it hurdles over which to climb to do its thing? Additionally, do Americans need any more reasons to get drunk? As it is, 88k Americans drink themselves to death every year, twice the number of overdoses, and yet, we pay little, if any, attention to the damage. In a culture of over-sensitivity, on balance, who cares if vaccine recipients have a beer? The CDC wants people to get vaccinated, if this helps increase the numbers of people doing so, why not?

This all went more deeply wonky yesterday when the state of Washington offered “joint for a jab”. This program received much more media coverage, much of it spiced with disapproval and a “can you believe it” tone.

Why would that be?

Does America so fear the hippy-fication of the general population that there is disdain for this but celebratory nonchalance at a beer bribe?

…

Washington

State

says

“hold

joint.”

Combing the internet, there isn’t much in the way of warnings to avoid smoking weed before or after a covid shot. One site did recommend “not being high” because “you’ll have to give accurate medical information” as if cannabis renders someone into a blabbing moron.

Stereotypes aside, there doesn’t seem to be any medical issue with cannabis use around a covid vaccine. Score one for Seattle.

As always, this isn’t about science, public health practice, or well-being, it’s about culture. For some reason, the safer substance, the better substance, is vilified while the riskier substance is met with a collective shoulder shrug. It’s just another example of how we base drug policy on everything other than scientific risk management.

Attaboy, Washington. It’s enough to make me want to bust out some Doc Martens, a flannel, and a Pearl Jam CD. If we’re going to do these kinds of proportions, dangling an intoxicant before party hungry youth, why wouldn’t we dangle the safer option? The option that’s has no interactions with the efficacy of the original goal? Seattle is is the stuff that makes red states cringe in horror. Often depicted as an Antifa ruled chess pool, time will tell how America responds to this.

It’s never easy being green.

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