Just days after Gov. Mike Parson announced the Missouri Vaccine Incentive Program (MO VIP), the number of vaccinated state residents began climbing.
MO VIP has proven to be an important incentive for those who had not been vaccinated, by providing the opportunity for Missouri residents to win 900 prizes worth millions of dollars, including $10,000 in education savings accounts for teens, 12 to 17.
Park Hill South ninth-grader Dillon DiBernardo is one of the lucky winners.
When his older brother, Kyle, told their mom, Jessica, about the education savings account, Dillon, who was then 14, thought this was a great way to encourage people and students to get the vaccine, and his mom signed him up.
“I was a little worried about it because some of my friends felt sick afterwards,” Dillon said.
But he soon decided to go ahead and get the vaccine because after the long quarantine, Dillon was eager to be able to hang out with his friends. His family and friends were all very supportive of Dillon’s decision.
“A lot of people I know have had COVID,” Dillon said. “My oldest brother had it when he went to college last fall. The rest of my family got it, including me, in the winter.”
Although he was a little tired and achy after the vaccine, and had a headache, he believed the vaccine would help things get back to normal.
He was also happy to join many of his friends and classmates who had received the vaccine.
“I went to St. Therese School last year and we were in-person from the middle of September,” Dillon said. “We also got to do most of our sports and other activities, but there were changes to make them safer with COVID.”
At the end of his seventh-grade year he had to do at-home learning, and realized he definitely prefers in-person schooling.
As things slowly return to normal, Dillon is glad he made the decision to be vaccinated since he had learned about how viruses are spread and how vaccines work to protect us as a community in his science classes.
If his friends were to ask his advice on the safety and side effects of the vaccine, he would be honest with them. “I would tell them that it is worth it,” Dillon said. “I only felt bad for a couple of days afterwards and it was better than having COVID, that would have lasted much longer.”
He feels safer now at school and in public. “I feel more protected with the vaccine,” Dillon said.
Caution is still important with the delta variant spread Dillon said, because people are still getting sick, even with the vaccine.
As of July 21, 47 percent of Missouri residents had received one vaccine and 40 percent had both.
Thanks in part to MO VIP, those numbers have moved up to 55.2 percent having received one dose and 48.3 percent receiving both vaccine doses as of Oct. 3.
Although he isn’t sure what he will study in college, he is very grateful that he has won the $10,000 education savings account. “It will definitely help,” Dillon said.
He is just happy to be in school again with his friends and able to do the things they were able to do before the lock-down.
“I feel like the vaccine gave me the opportunity to live my life as close to normal as it was before the pandemic,” Dillon said.