MONTERREY, Mexico – They travel thousands of miles by plane from Latin America to the US, in some places taking a shuttle direct from the airport to Covid-19 vaccine sites. Their ranks include politicians, TV personalities, business people and a soccer team.
People with Latin American resources charter planes, book commercial flights, buy bus tickets, and rent cars to get the vaccine in the United States due to a lack of home supplies.
Virginia Gónzalez and her husband flew from Mexico to Texas and then boarded a bus to a vaccination site. They made the trip again for a second dose. The couple from Monterrey, Mexico, acted on the advice of the doctor treating the husband for prostate cancer. In total they covered 1,400 miles on two round trips.
“It’s a matter of survival,” Gónzalez said of getting a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States. “In Mexico, officials didn’t buy enough vaccines. It’s like they don’t care about their citizens. “
With a population of nearly 130 million people, Mexico has collected more vaccines than many Latin American countries – about 18 million doses from the US, China, Russia and India as of Monday. Most of these have been given to health professionals, over-60s and some teachers, who are the only eligible so far. Most other Latin American countries, except Chile, are in the same situation or worse.
So vaccine seekers who can afford to travel come to the United States to avoid the long wait, including people coming all the way from Paraguay. Those making the trip must obtain a tourist visa and have sufficient funds to pay for the required coronavirus tests, airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other expenses.
In Mexico, business is booming for charter flights to Texas.
Gónzalez and her husband were vaccinated in Edinburgh, Texas, a town about 150 miles from their home. But with land access points closed to non-essential travel, the couple decided to take a commercial flight to Houston and then travel by bus.
Earlier this month, 19 players from the Monterrey professional soccer team, known as Rayados, flew to Dallas to pick up the vaccine, local media reported. In Peru, Hernando De Soto, an economist running for president, faced a backlash after admitting he had traveled to the US to get vaccinated.
TV personalities have posted on social media about their travels and have aroused the disdain of many viewers who accused them of showing off their privilege. Juan José Origel, a Mexican television host, tweeted a photo where he received the photo in Miami in January. Argentine TV personality Yanina Latorre also traveled to Miami for her elderly mother to receive a vaccine and posted a video to Instagram. Soon after, officials in Florida began demanding proof of residency for those who wanted a vaccine.
But about half of the US states, including Texas, Arizona, and California, do not have such a requirement and accept any official form of photo identification.
Many of the travelers have friends or family members who live in the US and they can help navigate the scheduling system or search for a leftover shot. Some have a second home in the US, but others borrow an address in the US. Some said they have read that many Americans do not intend to get vaccinated.
Alejandra, a dentist who also lives in Monterrey, said she decided to look for a vaccine in the US shortly after losing her mother to Covid-19 in February. She registered online at a CVS pharmacy in Texas using the address of a friend who lives there.
She flew to Houston last weekend and drove to her second Moderna shot in Pasadena, Texas on Monday. She asked her not to publish her full name for fear of retaliation after seeing reports that those who traveled in the US to receive vaccines could lose their visas.
Alejandra said she felt a sense of calm after receiving the booster shot and thought about her mother.
“What would have been if my mother had the chance to get the vaccine in the US,” she said.
She knows there has been criticism that foreigners like her are taking advantage of American taxpayers by getting vaccinated in the United States, but she said she is trying to protect herself and her family.
“The pharmacies say it doesn’t matter if you don’t have any documents … and they say it because they seek the common good of society,” she said.
The US government pays for the vaccines and for the cost of giving the shots to anyone who does not have insurance.
Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Health Services, said the vaccine in Texas “is for people who live, work, or spend significant time in Texas,” and that more than 99% of people get vaccinated. is. were citizens of the world.
Rich countries around the world have secured the largest stocks of vaccine, including the US, which has been criticized for not doing more to help poorer countries.
Inequality fuels vaccine tourism, said Ernesto Ortiz, senior manager of programs at Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center in North Carolina, which tracks the distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide. In Peru, for example, only 2% of the country’s 32 million residents have received a dose.
“I don’t blame them at all, they are desperate,” the Peruvian-American scientist said in an email.
Geovanny Vazquez said he and a friend plan to take a commercial flight from Guatemala City to Dallas on May 3, where another friend offered to help them find a coronavirus shot.
They were looking for immunization to feel safe while working in their home country, where they manage apartment buildings that they rent out to visitors, Vazquez said.
He said he can spend up to 20 days in the United States trying to get a shot. If he can’t be vaccinated in Texas, he plans to travel to other states such as Louisiana or Arizona.
If he were to become infected with COVID-19, Vazquez is confident he will recover. “But I also work with people, and that’s the main reason I would want to seek the opportunity” to get the vaccine in the US, he said.
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