MIAMI, Florida – If you’ve been trying to schedule an appointment to get a COVID-19 vaccination for an elderly family member in South Florida, you know it’s not easy. Appointments sell out quickly, but as Myriam Masihy, of the Telemundo 51 Investiga team found, while many residents of our state are still waiting, some tourists from other countries have come to visit and have received the vaccine.
In a video posted on her Instagram page, well-known Argentine TV host Yanina Latorre celebrates the fact that her mother may receive a COVID-19 vaccine during her visit to South Florida.
“I just took a turn for Dora, I took my vaccinated mother to Buenos Aires,” he says in the video.
In a series of videos he posted to Instagram, Latorre says that a friendship helped him get the date, as his mom meets the criteria to be over 65. The news did not go well with college professor Dr Omar Alvarez-Pousa, who is also a candidate for the vaccine but has not yet been able to receive it due to a shortage of appointments.
“They proactively promoted coming to Miami to get vaccinated for free for all over 65s and that there was no other requirement, just have an appointment (an appointment), come and get vaccinated,” says Pousa.
Another well-known Argentinian who has made headlines is lawyer Ana Rosenfeld, who says she often travels to Miami to see her family and was given the vaccine in Tampa.
“I didn’t come to a vaccination tour, I was here in the United States, I met my grandson who was born in a pandemic (…) He would have been in the part of the world he would have been and knowing that this possibility, I would have done it, ”Rosenfeld says.
Rosenfeld says he would never promote travel to get a vaccine. As for Yanina Latorre, we were able to reach her by phone, but she said she couldn’t speak at the time because she was in line for the vaccine. He agreed to give us an interview later, but he didn’t answer us anymore.
“There is the Hard Rock stadium. I don’t know if you see it, we are in line,” Latorre said in a video.
On Instagram, she recorded the process and asked what steps her mother should take after receiving the vaccine.
‘Can you go to the beach? Can you go to the beach? ‘, He says.
And then the moment came: “Mom gets the picture … come on Dora, I love you.”
“In the name of God,” he said before receiving the first dose. Watch the video.
Francis Suárez, Mayor of Miami, assures me, “I find it disgusting that people are taking advantage of the fact that we distribute vaccines in our community, it should be a priority for the residents of our community. And it is something that must not happen ”.
Suárez told us he will investigate the matter, while Dr. Alvarez-Pousa says he wrote to the governor with concern.
“This exists, fix it, it cannot be that today we are endangering an old man, another doctor or another patient by giving a vaccine to a tourist who comes and still abuses his stay and a show, when he returns to his country, that a vaccine was taken for free ”.
We also wrote to Governor Ron DeSantis’s office, but have not yet received a response. At present, there are no rules prohibiting a tourist who meets the criteria from receiving the vaccine.