Hamartia Antidote
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The US worried about vaccine tourists. Now it’s encouraging them.
Some cities and states with a surplus of vaccines are helping foreign travelers get their shots to help boost the local economy.
Like many vaccine tourists, “Alex” doesn’t want you to know his real name.
The British expat arrived on a red-eye flight from his home in Nairobi, Kenya, at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday, May 21, with the intention of staying just a few days—more than enough time, he hoped, to get a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Alex had been thinking about how to get vaccinated for weeks. Kenya has received only enough donated doses to vaccinate roughly 1% of its population, and while he would be eligible in the United Kingdom, getting shots there would be very complicated: a 14-day quarantine in a designated hotel upon arrival, registration with a local doctor, another 14-day quarantine upon his return to Kenya, and then likely a repeat of the whole process three or four months later for a second shot, since the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has not yet been approved in the UK.
The US, on the other hand, has no quarantine requirements and its vaccine supply has outstripped demand since April. After hearing first that a British couple he was friends with had successfully gotten their shot in Colorado, and then that New York City had plans to vaccinate travelers at popular tourist sites, Alex applied for his visa and booked his flight.
He doesn’t feel great about it, though. The past few years of US politics have left the country low on his list of places to visit, and it doesn’t make sense to him that he has to travel for a vaccine.
“It’s a bit of a joke, really,” he told me before his trip. “Is it really better to fly loads of people to New York to do this than to just fly some vaccines from New York to places where vaccines are needed?”
Opportunity for some
Almost as soon as the world’s first covid-19 vaccine became available, there were reports of people working the system to get the shot ahead of their turn.
In the UK, some paid upwards of £40,000 ($56,000) to fly to the United Arab Emirates on luxury vaccine vacations. In the US, some traveled across state lines to take advantage of more permissive eligibility criteria in neighboring states. Others just drove from wealthier neighborhoods to poorer ones, armed with access codes meant to help immunize more people from marginalized communities heavily affected by the disease. This wasn’t always called vaccine tourism, but it drew outrage, and no small amount of envy.
But as the vaccines have become more widely available in wealthy nations, the profile of vaccine tourists has also begun to shift—and so have government responses. A small but increasing number of places even see this travel as a way to help restart local economies stalled by the pandemic.
Such is the case with New York City.
In early-May, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a proposal to offer visitors the J&J vaccine at popular tourist sites such as Central Park and Times Square. “Come here; it’s safe,” he said in a press conference. New York is “a great place to be,” he added, “and we’re going to take care of you. We’re going to make sure you get vaccinated while you’re here with us.”
That plan is currently pending approval from the state health department, but if Alex is any indication, de Blasio’s message to tourists is already working.
