MIAMI, Florida – If you’ve been trying to make an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccination for an older relative in South Florida, you know it’s not easy. Appointments are selling fast, but as Myriam Masihy, from the Telemundo 51 Investiga team, discovered, while many residents of our state are still waiting, some tourists from other countries came to visit and received the vaccine.
In a video on her Instagram page, the famous Argentine television presenter Yanina Latorre celebrates the fact that her mother will be able to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 while visiting 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 on Instagram, Latorre says that a friendship helped him get the date, because his mother meets the criteria of being over 65 years old. The news was not very good for the university professor Dr. Omar Alvarez-Pousa, who also qualifies for the vaccine, but has not yet managed to receive it due to the lack of appointments.
“They proactively promoted coming to Miami to get a free vaccination for all people over the age of 65 and that no other requirement was needed, you just have to have an appointment (an appointment), come and get vaccinated,” he says. Pousa.
Another well-known Argentine who made headlines is lawyer Ana Rosenfeld, who says she travels frequently to Miami to see her family and received the vaccine in Tampa.
“I didn’t come to a vaccination tour, I was here in the United States, I came to meet my nephew who was born in a pandemic (…) He would have been in the part of the world where he would have been and knowing that there is this possibility, I would have done it, ”says Rosenfeld.
Rosenfeld says he will never promote travel to get a vaccine. As for Yanina Latorre, we managed to contact her by phone, but she said she could not speak at the time because she was in line for the vaccine. He agreed to give us an interview later, but he stopped answering.
“There’s the Hard Rock stadium, I don’t know if you see it, we’re in line,” Latorre said in a video.
On Instagram, he documented the process, asking what steps his mother should take after receiving the vaccine.
“Can you go to the beach?” Can you go to the beach? “, He says.
And then came the time: “Mom is shooting … 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, says: “I think it’s disgusting that people take advantage of the fact that we distribute vaccines in our community, it has to be a priority for the people of our community. And it’s something that shouldn’t happen. “
Suárez told us he would investigate the matter, while Dr. Alvarez-Pousa said he was worried and wrote to the governor.
“This exists, fix it, it is not possible today to endanger another old man, another doctor or another patient, offering a vaccine to a tourist who comes and still abuses his stay and makes a show, when he returns in his country, that a vaccine was taken for free ”.
I also wrote to Governor Ron DeSantis’ office, but I have not yet received a response. Currently, there are no rules that prohibit a tourist who meets the criteria to receive the vaccine.