The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Snowbirds eye COVID-19 vaccination in Florida
OTTAWA — Last March, snowbirds Jeff and Kathy Lerner left their home in Florida earlier than planned, making the long drive back to Ontario to wait out COVID-19 in their primary country of residence.
But now the couple are contemplating a return to their gated community in Boca Raton, just north of Miami, to secure a few doses of the Pfizer-biontech vaccine. The couple, both 65, would be joining a number of so-called snowbirds from Canada who have travelled to Florida in recent days to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, as a slower rollout in Canada leaves elderly recipients perhaps weeks or months away from getting jabbed.
“You can jump the queue,” Jeff Lerner said. “That’s what this is all about. Instead of waiting here in Canada for God knows how long, I could go down to Florida and get vaccinated.”
Lerner had planned to travel to Florida on Friday and wait in line for a vaccination, but he and his wife were forced to cancel the trip for personal reasons. He considers the decision to fly south far from ideal, but said it appears to be their best option as vaccinations in Canada are distributed slowly relative to the U.S.
“We’re just not doing this really well,” he said. “Why is it that Canadians have to travel, or can travel, to the United States to get vaccinated? There’s something fundamentally wrong with this.”
Media reports in recent days have identified a number of elderly Canadians travelling to their secondary residences in Florida to receive vaccinations, often supplying little more than their Canadian driver’s licence for identification. Florida began inoculating elderly residents late last week, and has administered a total of nearly 350,000 doses of various vaccine types.
Some Canadians have voiced a dissatisfaction with the sluggishness of the vaccine rollout compared with other countries, as national governments race to secure doses and oversee their distribution.
Lerner said at least one family friend, who lives in a community near Boca Raton, was scheduled to be vaccinated last week. Another couple in Lerner’s condominium in Toronto was planning to leave for Florida on Friday, and had an appointment to be vaccinated this past weekend.
One 69-year-old man, who spoke to Postmedia on the condition of anonymity due to public anger over cross-border travel, said he managed to secure an appointment to be vaccinated last week. He flew to Florida last Tuesday, received the Moderna vaccine on Thursday, and is now isolating in his gated community of Bonita Springs, roughly 200 kilometres west of Miami.
The man, who was vaccinated in Lee County, waited in line little more than 30 minutes.
“I was impressed by how organized they were,” he said.
He plans to remain in Florida until April, and is scheduled to receive his second dose in early February. His wife is making plans to join him in a few weeks, where she will also be vaccinated months before her Canadian peers.
“Frankly, I feel extremely safe here,” he said. “I feel safer here than I do in Toronto.”
The man also expressed frustration over the slower vaccine rollout in Canada, saying he is “appalled and disappointed that I had to jump on an airplane to get vaccinated.”
Consultancy firms and insurance providers have been bombarded with questions from Canadian snowbirds about travelling to the U.S. to secure a COVID-19 vaccine.
“It’s a hot topic, for sure,” said Stephen Fine, president of online information hub Snowbird Advisor.
Roughly one million Canadians travel to secondary residences in foreign countries every year, Fine said. About half of those people reside in Florida, by far the most popular destination, followed by Arizona and then California.
Fine said relatively little is known about the rules around who can be vaccinated in any given state or county, and warned that that poses risks to anyone who decides to board a plane. Insurance companies are unlikely to cover travellers, he said, while local policies around vaccine distributions could change with very little notice.
“We wouldn’t advise this for a few reasons,” he said. “First of all, you don’t know what availability is going to be like once you get there.”
Some of the people Fine has spoken to described “discontent” among some of the locals, angered that foreigners could get in line before citizens.
Canadian snowbirds travelling abroad have gained attention throughout the pandemic, with many opting to disregard foreign travel advisories to wait out the virus in warmer climates.
According to a study in November by Snowbird Advisor, which surveyed 3,000 people, 31 per cent of snowbirds planned to travel abroad this winter. Of the remaining respondents, 44 per cent said they would remain in Canada while 25 per cent remained undecided.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked last Tuesday about snowbirds travelling to the U.S. for vaccinations, and reiterated that the government “recommends against any non-essential travel.”
“It is safer for people to stay at home in Canada,” he said. He also repeated his claim that Canadians have access to “more vaccines per capita than just about any other country.”
Jeff Lerner said it is unclear how widespread the trend of Canadians getting vaccinated in Florida is, but said it might be the best of two bad options.
“I can’t say there are hordes of us who are doing it,” he said. “I’m only aware of the people I know. But the fact remains that the opportunity is there, and it’s just bizarre that it has presented itself.”