Wealthy Asians are fleeing to the US to get their Covid puffs. Photo: iStock

Wealthy Asians are escaping the COVID-19 vaccine shortage and flying thousands of miles to the US to receive their life-saving shocks.

While American states lure their citizens with lottery tickets and donuts in the arms for a stab, travel agencies are popping up in Asian countries offering tailor-made packages for vaccine tourism.

The promise of vaccination in the US was recently announced in Thailand, Vietnam, India and Taiwan: all the nations that initially performed well in the first year of the pandemic were only hurt by more infectious variants that recovered widely as the virus progressed spread.

Everyone has problems getting vaccines in a supply crisis. Vietnam has vaccinated only one million of its 98 million people, while Taiwan has thrust 1.3 percent of its 24 million people.

However, the United States has received enough to vaccinate its citizens twice – an excess that Asian travel companies are eager to use.

About half of the US states, including Texas, Arizona, and California, accept any official form of photo identification to get a vaccine, regardless of where you legally live. The U.S. government pays for the vaccines and the cost of giving the shots to anyone who doesn’t have health insurance.

However, the concept of citizens traveling abroad to jump in line has been controversial. Taiwan’s Ministry of Tourism this week reminded the public that it is illegal to organize group vaccination trips overseas. The Vietnamese tourism department also reportedly ordered the suspension of “vaccine tours”.

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Thailand plans to start a mass vaccination rollout in early June, but one citizen told us he feared it might be too late. Samart, who asked to change his name because he did not want to be seen to publicly criticize the Thai government, described the vaccination schedule as “hopeless”.

Already a US visa holder, he and his wife decided to go on a “tour” to San Francisco, where they received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a local pharmacy before flying home for a few days in Las Vegas .

The cost – £ 2,600 ($ A4,784) each – covered accommodation, airport transfers and booking the jabs. Flights and government quarantine in Thailand on return were not included, bringing the price to more than £ 6,700 per person.

“It’s not really a holiday,” said Samart. “The main purpose was to get the vaccine. Stopping in Vegas was like adding a cherry on top.”

He said he and his wife didn’t celebrate getting the vaccines. “We just feel relieved. We just went back to the hotel and rested.”

The Telegraph, London

May 31, 2021

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