The vaccine is free in the US. Many states will give it to anyone regardless of immigration status or residency.
I mean the article you linked already says “wealthy Asians”. Jetting to the US, getting the shot and flying back is not something the average Taiwanese worker can afford. So the amount of “help” the US offers (in terms of your post saying “America can help”) is really limited towards the top earners in Asia.
I think you’re making it out to be more expensive than it is. A round-trip flight plus a 14 day stay (to get the J&J vaccine) isn’t like buying a Ferrari. Some of my friends in TW are thinking about doing this and they’re not super wealthy. This isn’t a 1%er thing.
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Let’s see:
- Round-Trip ticket TPE-SFO around $30-40k
- 14 days in a cheap motel in California $25k
- Rental car for 14 days $15k
- Food for 14 days another $10k or even more
- Getting the vaccine: $0 (yeah, that one actually quite cheap!)
So a total of almost NT$100,000.
Oh, and also need unpaid leave for 1 month because you’re staying 2 weeks in the US and another 2 weeks in quarantine after returning to Taiwan.
Median wage in Taiwan is around NT$ 40,000 per month. Assuming maybe 50% of that is not already allocated to pay for fixed expenses, we can roughly assume NT$ 20,000 somewhat “freely available money” per month. Which leaves at least 5 months of saving to afford the vaccination trip, more realistically probably more like 8-12 months (especially when considering the unpaid vacation).
All that given that the employ actually accepted their employee being gone for 1 month…
Not a 1% thing for sure, but definitely not something for the majority of the population…
Not saying it’s for the majority of people in TW but I do think you underestimate how much money many Taiwanese have, even office workers.
Taiwanese are savers, and many people have money from family and real estate.
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Well, I estimated the costs at about 5,000-7,000 USD for the preferable Pfizer/Biontech vaccine which requires about a month stay. Flight to SF, AirBnB for a month in SF/bay area, ideally rental car to be safe, health insurance… Not exactly cheap.
You probably do not need accommodation, a rental car and health insurance, but with these things it is quite a lot of money
Goodness, where are you finding flights for 30-40k? I looked at China Airlines the other day and it was more like 100K per ticket, even just with economy class.
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To be fair, I didn’t spend much time looking and I wanted to give the benefit of doubt and rather state a too low price, so people don’t argue I would inflate prices.
If $100k is more “normal” nowadays, then the vaccine tourism becomes even more unaffordable for the “non-wealthy”…
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Next week EVA has 7 full flights to the US.
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[…]
That month, 2,400 more Taiwanese passengers flew to the U.S. than in the previous month, reported FTV News.In response to the spike in demand from Taiwanese passengers, EVA Air on Wednesday (June 2) announced it would more than double its flights to Los Angeles from three a week to every day. China Airlines announced that due to a shortage of pilots, instead of increasing the number of flights, it will start using larger jets in its fleet to accommodate the increase in passengers.
Many passengers bluntly said that they were going to the U.S. to get vaccinated, according to the report. Wealthy individuals are reportedly spending NT$7.5 million (US$271,000) each to take private charter jets, with such flights already booked through the end of July.
Even economy seats do not come cheap. Prior to the pandemic, a round-trip ticket on EVA Air from Taipei to Los Angeles during the off-season could be had for as low as NT$20,000. Now, economy seats on the same flight cost more than NT$70,000, premium economy over NT$80,000, and business class NT$200,000.
[…]
Industry insiders said that EVA Air flights to LA are almost fully booked. Many of the passengers taking these flights hold American green cards or are dual citizens.
[…]
According to National Immigration Agency statistics, 5,946 passengers flew to the U.S. in April, while in May the number soared to 8,346, an increase of 40 percent. Of these passengers, 80 percent were Taiwanese citizens.
That proves their confidence in the Taiwanese government.
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There only need to a few with faked papers and all will be in the shitters.
The country’s government says it wants to vaccinate 10 million people by September, but almost half of Romanians say they are not inclined to get the jab - one of the highest hesitancy levels in Europe, according to a survey by Globesec.
Bran Castle hopes its unique initiative will help boost vaccination numbers. During every weekend in May, anyone can turn up without an appointment to get a jab, and they also get free entry to the castle’s exhibit of 52 medieval torture instruments.
“The idea… was to show how people got jabbed 500-600 years ago in Europe,” the castle’s marketing director, Alexandru Priscu told Reuters news agency.
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Pardon my ignorance, but I thought that the USA had barred Foreigners from entry unless they hold a Green Card or certain exemptions, or has that been lifted to the extent that they now allow Tourists in?
All you need is a negative PCR test result.
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They have always kept doors open. There was a brief period where they did not issue new visas. But it has always been no quarantine, all aboard.
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There are bans on people having been to certain countries in the previous 14 days such as IIRC parts of Europe (Schengen countries, UK, Ireland), Brazil, South Africa and India
“There is no restriction on citizenship or residency down here. We were treated like anybody else as far as residency,”
Disclaimer: Travel Off Path does not recommend traveling to the United States on a visa for the primary purpose of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.
These are unprecedented times and traveling to receive the Covid-19 vaccine could come with risks including being denied entry, visa ineligibility, being infected with Covid-19 while traveling or inability to receive the vaccine. Travel Off Path does not take a stance either for or against the ethics of vaccine tourism .
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The problem with traveling to the U.S. for vaccination is that unless you are totally reckless you should get health insurance for the potentially astronomical health care costs there. And this is very difficult if not impossible in this context. Some guy got an invoice for over 3 million USD for staying in hospital because of covid
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