{"id":122153,"date":"2021-05-10T14:11:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T06:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=122153"},"modified":"2021-05-10T14:11:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T06:11:56","slug":"covid-19-vaccine-tourists-fly-from-abroad-for-injections-on-us-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=122153","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: \u2018Vaccine tourists\u2019 fly from abroad for injections on US beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MIAMI BEACH (Florida, US), May 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A long line of people snaked across the sand of Miami Beach, Florida, as dozens of travelers from Latin America waited their turn at a pop-up coronavirus vaccination booth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweating under the Sunday afternoon sun, visitors checked into an online system \u2014 no proof of residence required \u2014 and soon after received a free, single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a vaccination card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People had come from all over Latin America \u2014 Ecuador, El Salvador, Venezuela \u2014 where the vaccine rollout has been slow and hampered by supply shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my country, (Covid-19) is getting out of hand and there\u2019s not much chance we\u2019ll have access to the vaccine soon,\u201d Maria Bonilla, who arrived Saturday from Honduras, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 40-year-old accountant flew in with her parents, aged 63 and 73. The three of them stood in line, wearing masks. \u201cWe had to make the decision to look for a solution outside the country,\u201d Bonilla said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanca Diaz, 50, who arrived Friday from Mexico, came to the same conclusion: \u201cThey are just starting to vaccinate older people,\u201d she said of her home country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rush to find a vaccine has been accompanied by a sharp surge in airfares. Flights from Buenos Aires to Miami, which usually cost around $1,000, have jumped to $2,000 in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonilla is acutely aware of her privilege to be able to travel with her parents to get vaccinated. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate. It already creates this division that some of us have access to health and others do not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miami Beach city commissioner David Richardson, a Democrat, who oversaw the facility, said he has mixed feelings about the vaccine tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we, the United States government, should help as many people as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy only concern is that it seems that the people who can afford to buy an airfare can come to the United States and get a vaccine now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what about the poor people in South America?\u201d Richardson asked, urging the US government to send vaccines overseas \u201cso that everybody can have access to the vaccine, not just the people who can afford to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, the pop-up vaccination booth inoculated 175 people with the Johnson & Johnson shot, the brand favored by tourists because it requires only one dose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the second weekend that the booth has been set up on the beach, and it will be back for the next few weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson said he was authorized Sunday morning to provide vaccines to anyone over age 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In theory, Florida vaccinates state residents or people who indicate \u2014 verbally \u2014 that they offer a service in-state. As of 10 days ago, it is no longer necessary to provide documented proof of residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This easing of requirements was implemented to encourage undocumented residents to get vaccinated \u2014 but it also has encouraged vaccine tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since January, wealthy Latin Americans have been creatively circumventing the now-eliminated residency requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They would show bank statements for accounts with a US address, or temporary rental contracts \u2014 even with Airbnb \u2014 could be immediately canceled once they had been vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than nine million people \u2014 out of a total of 21.5 million residents \u2014 have had at least one dose of the vaccine in Florida, according to the US health department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this point, the people that haven\u2019t been vaccinated is certainly not because a lack of supply or a lack of availability,\u201d Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said last week. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI BEACH (Florida, US), May 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A long line of people snaked across the sand of Miami Beach, Florida, as dozens of travelers from Latin America waited their turn at a pop-up coronavirus vaccination booth. Sweating under the Sunday afternoon sun, visitors checked into an online system \u2014 no proof of residence required […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":122157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122153"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/122157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}