Can 500 Pounds Convince People to Self-Isolate?
Paying people to stay at home is an alluring idea. But implementation could be costly and have unintended consequences.
For many, staying home means losing income.
Photographer: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images
If one of the main reasons coronavirus infection rates remain so high is that people refuse to self-isolate, paying them to stay home could make a difference. But doing so isn’t just expensive, it risks some unintended consequences
It’s an idea politicians as far apart as the Republican governor of Vermont, Phil Scott, and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have supported. In November, Michael Osterholm, a coronavirus advisor to President Joe Biden, said that paying workers to stay home for four to six weeks could contain the virus.