Samantha Lyons

Dr. Chapman
Anth 215 A
10/9/22
Extra Credit Week 2: The Morals of Paying Unhoused People to Get Vaccinated
In lecture this week, we learned about a study conducted by a team of anthropologists
that studied the sperm count of people in a poor community. For their contribution in the study,
the community members were financially compensated. In class, we briefly discussed the ethics
of this study. We mainly discussed the question of “Is it ethical to offer individuals money to
participate in a study when it is known they need money to survive?”
This study hits close to home because I have been put in a position similar to the one the
researchers of this study were in. Since the COVID-19 vaccine came out, I have been working as
a vaccinator. The company I work for is responsible for running clinics of all shapes and sizes
across Massachusetts. Originally, I worked at large mass vaccination sites that were located in
convention centers, stadiums, and schools. However, as it became clear that lower income
communities had significantly lower vaccination rates, we began staffing small clinics in these
communities. Typically, we worked in teams of 6 and set up tents in parks, grocery store parking
lots, churches, and senior centers to name a few. However, there was a period of a few weeks
over the summer where I began to question the ethics of how we ran our clinics. To increase
vaccination rates, the state of Massachusetts began offering gift cards to anyone who got
vaccinated. The goal was for these gift cards to be useful to everyone, so they were gift cards to
one of the grocery stores in Massachusetts. On paper, this idea seems like a harmless way to
protect the health of the public. However, as I began working at these clinics that were almost
exclusively in low income towns, I became more skeptical.
When word got out we were handing out free money, unhoused people began coming to
our clinics to get the gift cards. Personally, I fully believe that everyone should get vaccinated
because the COVID-19 vaccine saves lives and that an individual's anti-vaxx stance is borderline
irrelevant in a pandemic of this severity. However, I refuse to vaccinate someone without their
informed consent. These people who came solely due to a desperate need for food technically
consented. However, did they really have a choice? What was the alternative? Unfortunately, if
they did not consent they could not eat. I had one man tell me he hadn’t eaten in three days and
was going to use the money to buy as much food as he could because he was starving. As we
were talking, it was obvious he was incredibly excited about the $25 worth of food he was about
to purchase. I asked him if I had his consent to administer the Pfizer vaccine. He said “Yes, you
can inject me with anything you want as long as I can have that gift card.” Technically, he
consented, so I vaccinated him despite it feeling morally gray. I believe I had a positive impact
on this man by vaccinating him, but without the opinion to deny consent I felt as if I had taken
advantage of him.
As a vaccinator, I am incredibly proud of the work I’ve done, but the moral complexity
that was added by these gift cards makes me feel as though I may have abused my power. To
learn in class that this nuanced layer of compensating people for participation is not a dilemma
isolated to my experience was difficult to swallow. If put in that same position again, I would not
change my actions, but I would’ve been significantly more cognisant of the moral puzzle I had
just entered.