People line up to receive a Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site in Miami Beach on Sunday.
People had come from all over Latin America — Ecuador, El Salvador, Venezuela — where the vaccine rollout has been slow and hampered by supply shortages. 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.
Miami Beach city commissioner David Richardson, a Democrat, who oversaw the facility, told AFP he has mixed feelings about the vaccine tourists.“My only concern is that it seems that the people who can afford airfare can come to the US and get a vaccine now. This easing of requirements was implemented to encourage undocumented residents to get vaccinated — but it also has encouraged vaccine tourists.