Tim Walz used cash reward to encourage Minnesota parents to give Covid vax to children as young as 5

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offered parents a cash reward to encourage their children to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which was available to children as young as five at the time. The vaccine incentive titled "Kids Deserve a Shot" was announced by Walz in Jan. 2022 offered $200 to families who got their children between the ages of 5 and 11 "fully vaccinated."

Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, wrote on X at the time: "Big news: Starting this month, families who get their 5- to 11-year-olds vaccinated can get $200! That's cash in your pocket for starting the year off right by protecting your child from COVID."

Eligibility was contingent upon parents or guardians providing documentation that their children received both shots of the vaccination between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, 2022. Walz made the pitch by citing a surge in the "Omicron" variant at the time.

"As Omicron surges across our nation, we're continuing to use every resource we have to keep our families safe and healthy," he wrote in a statement. "There's a lot of highly transmissible virus circulating in our communities, but getting our children 5-11 years old vaccinated gives them critical protection against severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19 and helps keep them in school."

Walz first touted the incentive in Fall 2021. It went as far as offering students $100,000 scholarships if they got the jab, as reported by Breitbart.

The Democrat governor has been heavily criticized over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, he set up a hotline for residents to tattle on their neighbors who weren't following his government-mandated COVID orders.