Coronavirus: Mexican Citizens Flying to Texas for Vaccinations

Per Worldometer, one might argue that COVID-19 in Mexico is following a similar trajectory as in the United States. Cases peaked during the holidays and then declined, but are basically plateauing at pre-holiday levels. Will Mexico or the United States get hit with another wave of cases? Based on vaccination rates, it looks like the chances are higher in Mexico versus the United States.

How bad are vaccinations going in Mexico? Well, I came across a couple articles that discussed this. 

Associated Press via the LA Times (Feb 4):

Desperation mounted in Mexico on Thursday as the country runs out of COVID-19 vaccines, a government registration website crashed for a third straight day and restaurant workers protested virus restrictions they say are driving them into poverty.

. . . Mexico has received only about 760,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and has only about 89,000 of those left, many of which are earmarked for second shots.

It expects to get more Pfizer doses by mid-month, and as many as 400,000 Sputnik shots by the end of February, but they won’t be enough to vaccinate even the country’s 750,000 front-line health workers and represent a drop in the bucket for Mexico’s population of 126 million.

LA Times (Mar 31):

Mexico’s vaccine rollout has been painfully slow, with just 4% of the nation’s 128 million citizens having received at least one dose. Healthcare analysts say that the original target of vaccinating at least two-thirds of the population by August is a fantasy, and that inoculation efforts will stretch well into next year.

Now many of those with means are flocking to the United States for shots.

. . . Last week, the government here publicly confirmed what many had long suspected: The number of people lost to the pandemic is more than 320,000, much higher than totals previously reported. The “excess death” data suggest that Mexico ranks No. 2 in COVID fatalities, behind the U.S., which has recorded more than 550,900 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Okay so 4% is about 5 million people. Between Feb 4th and Mar 31st they moved from not even being able to vaccinate their health care workers, which are 0.6% of their population, to getting to 5 million. Our World in Data currently has Mexico at 5.4%, which compares to the United States at 29.2% as of March 31st so some differences with what the LA Times has listed. As a comparison, the Europe Union is at 11.6%. Similar to the United States, Mexico got off to a slow start, just a lot slower of a start.

If the true deaths in Mexico is at 320,000, then Mexico's deaths per million is at 2,463. Worldometer as of March 31st had deaths per million at 1,564. This revised total of 2,463 is also significantly higher than that of the United States, which was at 1,704 on March 31st. This is also an example of significant under-counting that I suspect we'll find has occurred in multiple countries. Worldometer has us at around 2.9 million deaths. I wouldn't be shocked at all if the true death total was really closer to 4 million at this point in time. 

Is it just me or is it just a bit concerning that wealthy Mexican citizens are coming to the United States to get vaccinated? I get the argument in the article where we should vaccinate everyone who lives in the United States even if they aren't here legally. Not vaccinating a portion of the population just because they're not legal would result in unwanted outbreaks. Based on that, it would be difficult to stop wealthy Mexicans from coming to the United States for a vaccination shot. Yet, isn't there just a moral issue on the part of these individuals not to take vaccinations that are meant for people living in the United States?