MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) – I travel thousands of miles by plane from Latin America to the United States, in some places taking a shuttle directly from the airport to COVID-19 vaccination sites. They include politicians, TV personalities, business executives and a football team.
People in Latin America travel by plane, book commercial flights, buy bus tickets and rent cars to get the vaccine in the United States due to lack of home supplies.
Virginia Gonzalez 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 who treats her husband for prostate cancer. In total, they recorded 1,400 miles (2,200 kilometers) for two round trips.
“It’s a matter of survival,” Gonzalez said of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. “In Mexico, officials have not bought enough vaccines. They don’t seem to care about their citizens. ”
With a population of nearly 130 million people, Mexico has provided more vaccines than many Latin American nations – about 18 million doses since Monday from the United States, China, Russia and India. Most of these have been given to health workers, people over 60 and teachers, who are so far the only ones eligible. Most other Latin American countries, with the exception of Chile, are in the same or worse situation.
So people looking for vaccines that can afford to travel come to the United States to avoid the long wait, including people from Paraguay. Those making the trip must obtain a tourist visa and have enough money to pay for the necessary coronavirus tests, plane tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals and other expenses.
In Mexico, business is booming for charter flights to Texas.
Gonzalez and her husband were inoculated in Edinburgh, Texas, a town about 254 miles from their home. But with land entrances closed for non-essential travel, the couple decided to take a commercial flight to Houston and then travel by bus.
Earlier this month, 19 players with the professional football team in Monterrey, known as Rayados, flew to Dallas to receive the vaccine, local media reported. In Peru, Hernando De Soto, an economist running for president, faced an adverse reaction after admitting to traveling to the United States to get vaccinated.
Television personalities posted on social media about their travels, attracting the contempt of many viewers who accused them of displaying their privilege. Juan José Origel, a Mexican television host, posted a photo of him on Twitter receiving the shot in January in Miami. Argentine TV personality Yanina Latorre also traveled to Miami for her elderly mother to receive a vaccine and posted a video on Instagram. Shortly thereafter, Florida officials began requesting proof of residency for those seeking a vaccine.
But about half of the US states, including Texas, Arizona and California, do not have such a requirement and will accept any official form of photo identification.
Many of those who travel have friends or relatives who live in the United States and can help them navigate the dating system or search for a remaining photo. Some have a second home in the US, but others borrow an address in the US. Some said they 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 United States shortly after she lost her mother to COVID-19 in February. He registered online at a CVS pharmacy in Texas using the address of a friend who lives there.
Last weekend, he flew to Houston and, on Monday, drove to receive the second Modern shot in Pasadena, Texas. She demanded that her full name not be published because she fears revenge after seeing reports that those who traveled to receive vaccines in the US could lose their visas.
Alejandra said she felt calm after receiving the booster shot and thought of her mother.
“What if only my mother had the opportunity to get the vaccine in the United States,” she said.
She knows there are criticisms that foreigners like her are taking advantage of American taxpayers by being inoculated in the United States, but she said she is trying to protect herself and her family.
“Pharmacies say it doesn’t matter if you don’t have documents … and they say it because they’re looking for the common good of society,” she said.
The US government pays for vaccines and the cost of providing shots to anyone without insurance.
Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Health Services, said the Texas vaccine is “intended for people who live, work or spend a significant amount of time in Texas” and that more than 99% of those vaccinated were residents. of the state.
Rich countries around the world have managed to buy the largest supplies of vaccine, including the US, which has been criticized for not doing more to help poorer countries.
Inequality fuels tourism with vaccines, said Ernesto Ortiz, senior program manager at Duke University’s Global Center for Health Innovation in North Carolina, which keeps track of the distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide. In Peru, for example, only 2% of the country’s 32 million people received a dose.
“I don’t blame them at all, they are desperate,” the Peruvian-American scientist said in an e-mail.
Geovanny Vazquez said he and a friend plan to take a commercial flight on May 3 from Guatemala City to Dallas, where another friend offered to help them find a coronavirus outbreak.
They were looking for immunization to feel safe while working in their home country, where they manage apartment buildings that they rent to visitors, Vazquez said.
He said he could spend up to 20 days in the United States trying to shoot himself. If he cannot be inoculated in Texas, he intends to travel to other states such as Louisiana or Arizona.
If he became infected with COVID-19, Vazquez is confident he will recover. “But I also work with people, and that’s the main reason I’d like to look for a chance to get the vaccine in the United States,” he said.
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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.