Lorraine Simpson: Why Canadians are traveling to the USA to get vaccinated

Getting vaccinated in the USA is just ‘like buying candy,’ according officials and travelers alike.

What a difference this country has made in such a short period of time.

As of late 2020 and early 2021, the vaccination rollout looked iffy for our friends south of the border.

Would there be enough vaccination to keep a population of nearly 400 million people safe? How would the optics all work? Could the country pull it off?

Fast forward to spring, and the U.S. is in fact showing the world how its all done on the vaccination front. Good job team USA. Here’s the score: U.S. 1, and US 0.

A growing number of border towns are now offering the COVID-19 vaccine to Canadians who are desperately trying to get their first dose in the middle of a massive third wave. And you don’t need to just look at border towns – states like Ohio and Indiana, are open for anyone to get their shots and they do not require proof of citizenship for inoculations, which means us Canucks can finally hop on a plane to avoid getting COVID-19.

All you need to do is just show your Canadian passport and you will get your first dose (talk to your healthcare provider at home or in the U.S. to see when you will need your second dose).

Our border with the USA has been closed to nonessential travel for a little over a year now in a bid to combat the pandemic. The good news however is that there are loopholes that Canadians can take advantage of, especially since the vaccination rollout at home is slow and disorganized.

The process is very straightforward. You show up and you will get vaccinated. Many people from Canada are reporting that they are in-and out- of pharmacies in under five minutes.

You should know that it’s not illegal to travel to the U.S. to get vaccinated and our good ol’ yankie friends are more than happy to share their doses with their ‘Neighbours from the North.’ As we all know, there is a new administration in power in Washington, so we are all feeling the love right now, and Canada and the USA are each others’ biggest trading partners.

Now, the news gets better too: not only can we drive or fly into some states to get vaccinated, but there are now also agreements being made between cross-border towns to allow for vaccine sharing.

A case in point is Alaska and British Columbia – they are sharing vaccines and making the process as easy as a handshake.

Another example is Blackfeet Nation in Montana, who were at the Piegan-Carway border crossing in Alberta, administering COVID-19 vaccines to members of the Blackfoot Confederacy and residents in the nearby town of Cardston.

As of today (Friday), over 43 per cent of adults in the U.S. had been given one shot of the vaccine (you need two shots to be fully vaccinated), but meanwhile in Canada, only 24 per cent of our population had a least one dose, reports Health Canada.

Here at home, there has been a high level of criticism for the slow vaccination rollout, but it is now starting to gain some traction. The big problem has been with the federal deliveries falling short of provincial administration rates, with some very close to using all of the vaccines delivered to them so far.

Now back to Saunders. He says, “There are no wait times, so there’s a lot of availability (in the U.S.).”

He adds, “And I think a lot of the fellow Canadians have realized this and now they’re frustrated with the wait times in Canada. They’re looking at coming to the U.S. as an option to getting their vaccination a lot quicker.”

Now before you fill the car up with gas or book your airline ticket, you will still have to do a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

But the quarantine should not be a deterrent. We have waited this long to get vaccinated in a lockdown (make that a third lockdown), so what’s a couple of more weeks?

Happy vaccination and happy vaxication!