ASF Perspectives: Vaccine Tourism

With the emergence of the Covid-19 vaccines, people have been scrambling to get their hands on them. This has led to the creation of a phenomenon called “vaccine tourism,” where people, as a result of a shortage of vaccines within their own country of residence, travel to another country to receive the injection. Some argue that this is bound to become a divisive issue; depending on where your priorities lie and whose shoes you put yourself in, your perspective may vary.

According to a survey, this holds true in the ASF student body, where opinions on the issue are decidedly mixed. The percentage of students who replied “yes” to vaccine tourism being a divisive issue was the smallest group by a small margin. Surprisingly, the percentage of people who replied “no” and the undecided people on the topic showed that it’s not a clear-cut issue where everyone falls on one side. The explanations provided for the “no” side generally fell on the explanation that countries should seek to vaccinate all their own citizens first. People coming in selfishly to take those vaccines only serve to prevent that goal. Contrarily, others didn’t fault people for trying to keep themselves and their loved ones safe during a pandemic.

On the topic of government rollout, students were asked about how they thought AMLO was performing with his plan to begin vaccine rollout with the elderly in rural areas. The vast majority of students thought that he was doing poorly. The responses indicated that they believed AMLO hadn’t started his vaccine plan quickly enough to save as many people as possible and that he should’ve begun in more concentrated urban areas.

When asked about how a global vaccine rollout should work, most ASF students surveyed believed richer countries should help supply poorer countries with vaccines so that everyone can be healthy and happy.