Business Brisk as Americans Stream to Canada for Flu Shots (Source: Boston Globe)
From the article:
Americans are streaming into Canada — in some cases by the boatload — in search of flu vaccine.
With a US shortage caused by contaminated vaccine and flu season approaching, business has been brisk at Canadian clinics and doctors’ offices along the border from British Columbia to as far east as New Brunswick.
A Canadian Internet pharmacy is working with a half-dozen physicians in Montreal to offer weekend flu-shot tours to New Yorkers. The price is $75 for a medical exam and inoculation.
An even more novel operation is a “flu cruise” ferry ride from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia. For $105, passengers get a round-trip ticket and a flu shot dockside in Victoria. The 330-passenger ferries have been full all week, said the operator, Clipper Navigation Inc. On Sunday, patients determined to get their shots braved 6- to 8-foot seas and 40-knot winds in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“There’s this fear factor” that is motivating people to travel to Canada for shots, said Darrell Bryan, vice president and general manager for Clipper. “We have a lot of seniors, a number of people with walkers and wheelchairs. We are very sensitive to their needs in that open body of water.”
To avoid being accused of price gouging, the ferry line dropped the price from the normal $115 round-trip fare…