Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on May 26 defended the Buckeye State’s lottery program for promoting COVID-19 vaccines. The governor made the comments on the day the state was to announce one winner of the $1 million prize and one winner of a four-year university scholarship. “The true waste at this point in the pandemic is for someone to die from Covid when that’s not necessary, when we have the vaccine that could save their life,” DeWine told CNN. DeWine offered the defense when prompted with a question featuring the comments of a fellow state Republican, who said the lottery is a waste of taxpayer dollars and basically a bribe. “We need to save lives,” he said. “We need to get Ohio moving forward. The way we do it is through vaccines. This is our ticket out of the pandemic. This is the great tool that we have now.” DeWine …