Vaccine Tourism-Sanskriti IAS

In India, the term ‘vaccine tourism’ became popular late last year when reports emerged of several tourism company offering packages to the US with the additional benefit of a vaccine shot. A couple of days ago, reports emerged of a Dubai-based tour operator offering a 24-day package tour from Delhi to Moscow that has included two shots of the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine.
In fact, vaccine tourism is an emerging trend in countries where vaccines are in short supply, or where certain groups are still restricted from being inoculated. There are only a few countries in the world (parts of the US, Russia, Slovakia, Zimbabwe, etc) that don’t restrict their vaccination policy to local residents.
Currently, it is not illegal to travel to a foreign country to get vaccinated if air travel is allowed. However, the idea of vaccine tourism is gaining momentum in India. There may be no need for anyone from India to go abroad for vaccination since all eligible Indians will be vaccinated in the country by the end of this year, at the most reasonable rates possible.
It is said that Russia and the Maldives are already working on programs to offer people abroad the chance to get vaccinated during a visit; similar offerings are sprouting in the US and Europe as well.

Vaccine Tourism