A long line of people on Sunday snaked across the sand of Miami Beach, Florida, as dozens of travelers from Latin America waited their turn at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination booth.
Sweating under the afternoon sun, visitors checked into an online system — no proof of residence required — and soon after received a free, single-dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a vaccination card.
People had come from all over Latin America — Ecuador, El Salvador, Venezuela — where the vaccine rollout has been slow and hampered by supply shortages.
Photo: Bloomberg
“In my country, [COVID-19] is getting out of hand and there’s not much chance we’ll have access to the vaccine soon,” said Maria Bonilla, who arrived on Saturday from Honduras.
The 40-year-old accountant flew in with her parents, aged 63 and 73. The three of them stood in line, wearing masks.
“We had to make the decision to look for a solution outside the country,” Bonilla said.
Blanca Diaz, 50, who arrived Friday from Mexico, came to the same conclusion.
“They are just starting to vaccinate older people,” she said of her home country.
The rush to find a vaccine has been accompanied by a sharp surge in airfares. Flights from Buenos Aires to Miami, which usually cost about US$1,000, have jumped to US$2,000 this month.
Bonilla is acutely aware of her privilege to be able to travel with her parents to be vaccinated.
“It’s unfortunate. It already creates this division that some of us have access to health and others do not,” she said.
Miami Beach City Commissioner David Richardson who oversaw the facility, said he has mixed feelings about the vaccine tourists.
“I think we, the United States government, should help as many people as possible,” he said.
“My 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 — and what about the poor people in South America?” Richardson added, urging the US government to send vaccines overseas “so that everybody can have access to the vaccine, not just the people who can afford to come here.”
The pop-up vaccination booth on Sunday inoculated 175 people with the Johnson & Johnson shot, the brand favored by tourists because it requires only one dose.
This is the second weekend that the booth has been set up on the beach, and it would return for the next few weekends.
Florida vaccinates state residents or people who verbally indicate that they offer a service in-state. As of 10 days ago, it is no longer necessary to provide documented proof of residence.
This was implemented to encourage undocumented residents to be vaccinated — but it also has encouraged vaccine tourists.
Since January, wealthy Latin Americans have been creatively circumventing the now-eliminated residency requirement.
They would show bank statements for accounts with a US address, or temporary rental contracts — even with Airbnb — which could be immediately canceled once they had been vaccinated.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the