Americans have been traveling in recent days to get the COVID-19 vaccine, an experience being called “vaccine tourism.”
What is vaccine tourism?
It’s pretty simple. Vaccine tourism is the idea of people visiting other states across the country in search of COVID-19 vaccines, according to Bloomberg.
- “Frustrated by crashing appointment websites, shortages of COVID-19 shots and a patchwork of confusing eligibility rules, people with time and money are heading out of town in pursuit of a potentially lifesaving inoculation,” Bloomberg reports.
- Tourists have been visiting Miami, Hawaii, Colorado, New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut, according to Bloomberg.
Is this bad?
Experts told Bloomberg this might not be such a good thing because the vaccine remains in short supply.
- “Everything we can do to get more people vaccinated will decrease the spread of COVID,” Marissa J. Levine, a public health professor at the University of South Florida, told Bloomberg. “But we’re in a situation where demand is outstripping supply significantly, so that puts people on edge if they perceive that others are coming in to take their vaccine, even if it’s really all of our vaccine.”
Florida has cracked down on vaccine tourism.
View Comments
Florida issued new health guidelines Thursday to cut down on “vaccine tourism,” according to CNN. The state now requires people who are permanent or seasonal residents to get the vaccine.
- “We’re only doing (shots) for Florida residents,” Florida Gov. DeSantis said Tuesday in Cape Coral, according to CNN. “You’ve got to live here either full-time or at least part-time.”
- “Now we do have part-time residents who are here all winter,” he said. “They go to doctors here or whatever, that’s fine. What we don’t want is tourists, foreigners. We want to put seniors first, but we obviously want to put people that live here first in line.”