MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) – They travel thousands of miles by plane from Latin America to the United States, in some places taking a shuttle service directly from the airport to COVID-19 vaccination sites. Among its ranks are politicians, television personalities, business executives and a football team.
Media people from Latin America rent planes, book commercial flights, buy bus tickets, and rent cars to get the vaccine in the United States for lack of home supply.
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 treated her husband for prostate cancer. In total, they recorded 1,400 miles (2,200 kilometers) during two round trips.
“It’s a matter of survival,” Gonzalez said of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. “In Mexico, officials did not buy enough vaccines. It’s as if they don’t care about their citizens. “
With a population of about 130 million people, Mexico has gotten more vaccines than many Latin American nations, about 18 million doses as of Monday from the U.S., China, Russia and India. Most have been given to health workers, people over 60 and some teachers, who are so far the only ones eligible. Most other Latin American countries, except Chile, are in the same or worse situation.
Thus, vaccine seekers who can afford to travel arrive in the United States to avoid the long wait, including people as far as 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, rental cars and other expenses.
In Mexico, business is booming for charter flights to Texas.
Gonzalez and her husband were inoculated in Edinburg, Texas, a town about 254 miles from her home. But with ground entry 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 Monterrey’s professional football team known as Rayados flew to Dallas to get the vaccine, local media reported. In Peru, Hernando De Soto, a presidential candidate economist, faced a backlash after admitting he traveled to the U.S. to get vaccinated.
Television personalities have posted their travels on social media and have attracted the contempt of many viewers who accused them of displaying their privilege. Juan José Origel, host of Mexican television, tweeted about a photo of him being shot in January in Miami. Argentine television personality Yanina Latorre also traveled to Miami for her elderly mother to receive the vaccine and posted a video on Instagram. Soon after, Florida officials began demanding residency tests for those seeking a vaccine.
But about half of U.S. states, including Texas, Arizona and California, do not have this requirement and will accept any official form of identification with a photograph.
Many travelers have friends or relatives who live in the United States and can help them navigate the dating system or look for a surplus. Some have second homes in the United States, but others have borrowed an American address. Some said they have read that many Americans have no plans to get vaccinated.
Alejandra, a dentist who also lives in Monterrey, said she decided to get a vaccine in the United States shortly after losing 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 his second shot from Moderna in Pasadena, Texas. He asked that his full name not be published because he is afraid of retribution after seeing reports that those traveling to get vaccinated in the United States could lose their visas.
Alejandra said she felt a sense of calm after receiving the booster shot and thought of her mother.
“What would have happened if only my mother had had a chance to get the vaccine in the US,” he said.
She knows there are criticisms that foreigners like her are taking advantage of American taxpayers 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 seek the common good of society,” he said.
The U.S. government pays for the vaccines and the cost of giving the vaccines to anyone who doesn’t have insurance.
Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Health Services, said the vaccine in Texas is “designed for people who live, work or spend a significant amount of time in Texas” and that more than 99% of people vaccinated were residents of the state.
Rich countries around the world have been able to acquire the largest supply of vaccines, including the United States, which has been criticized for doing nothing more to help poorer countries.
Inequality fuels vaccine tourism, said Ernesto Ortiz, senior program manager at Duke University’s Center for Global Health Innovation in North Carolina, which tracks the distribution of coronavirus vaccines throughout the world. In Peru, for example, only 2% of the country’s 32 million people 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 planned to take a commercial flight on May 3 from Guatemala City to Dallas, where another friend offered to help them find a coronavirus shot.
They sought vaccination to feel safe while working in their home country, where they managed apartment buildings that they rented to visitors, Vazquez said.
He said it can take up to 20 days in the United States to try to shoot. If he cannot be inoculated in Texas, he plans to travel to other states like Louisiana or Arizona.
If he became infected with COVID-19, Vázquez is confident he would recover. “But I also work with people, and that’s the main reason I would like to look for the opportunity” to get the vaccine in the U.S., he said.
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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.