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Canadians Are Flying South To Cut The Line For American COVID-19 Vaccines

(Photo by DAVE CHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
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America’s neighbors to the north are crossing the closed Canada-U.S. border to take American COVID-19 vaccines.

Vaccine demand is declining in the U.S., where roughly 60% of adults have received at least one shot and more than 107 million are fully vaccinated. Those numbers have inspired more and more Canadians to cross the border for a shot in the USA, rather than wait months to get one in Canada, according to Reuters.

Even though about one-third of Canadians have received at least one dose of a vaccine, only three percent have been fully inoculated. That’s because Canadians are waiting up to four months between doses, compared to the three to four weeks Americans have waited between shots of Moderna or Pfizer’s vaccine. (RELATED: Shh — The Media Doesn’t Seem To Want You To Know COVID-19 Cases Are Plummeting Nationally)

“Just sitting at home in Ontario isn’t going to change anything,” 37-year-old Jimmy Simmons told Reuters. The Toronto-based businessman flew to New York to meet business clients and received his first of two doses while he was there.

Simmons had to fly because crossing the border over land is still prohibited to non-essential traffic. He is one of many Canadians who have now reportedly gotten free vaccine doses in the U.S., meaning that Americans are, in effect, subsidizing their neighbor’s vaccination campaign. (RELATED: Biden Admin To Send 2.5 Million Doses Of AstraZeneca Vaccine To Mexico, Canada)

Andrew D’Amours, 31, of Quebec City told Reuters he flew to Dallas and got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine on April 10. He said that others from the Great White North have inquired about the process, indicating that the trip is becoming more popular. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said all Canadians will be able to be fully vaccinated by the end of September.

Canada requires a 14-day quarantine for everyone entering the country and is still discouraging foreign travel. Still, some Canadians say it’s worth it to fly south for a shot, and some truck drivers are getting jabs during their cross-border hauls, Reuters reports.