The record of incentives to get vaccinated is so good that you could be (however will not) wish to do it once more.

More than a year ago it was realized that there may be a problem with America’s vaccination that goes beyond vaccine availability. This is because a large number of Americans have become increasingly anti-science as well as anti-vax in recent years. When people are convinced that the vaccine is loaded with mercury (no), made from fetal stem cells (no), microchipped (no), or the product of an international conspiracy by a man directly in the National Institutes of Health works (um, no), it’s hard to argue with them.

For this reason, the discussion on Daily Kos and elsewhere, even before the first vaccines became available, centered on ideas of a “vaccination pass” – particularly ideas on how people could be encouraged to vaccinate. Could the fully vaccinated be allowed to dine in restaurants that were otherwise closed? Could companies offer them discounts? Could they be allowed to remove their masks in areas where the unvaccinated still had to cover their faces?

Some of the ideas put forward were less workable than others. (For example, it was my idea that the final stimulus payment should be tied to evidence of vaccination, which was clearly made impossible by timing, if nothing else.) Others were a bit … strict. With the number of vaccinations per day still falling and less than 50% of the population vaccinated, states, cities and companies are working to encourage vaccine-doubters to get the sting. These are just a few of those ideas that have not only been proposed but actually implemented.

And if it sometimes reads like the menu at a not-too-healthy buffet, then that’s America.