Flu tourism booms

last updated 8 January 2015

Vancouver

Americans are crowding onto ferry boats to cross from Seattle to Canada, get flu shots, and come straight home. A Seattle company, Clipper Navigation, organized the “flu ferry” last month after health officials announced that nearly half of the U.S. vaccine supply had been contaminated and would be discarded. The $105 fare includes a dose of vaccine, which is in ready supply in Vancouver, where the vessel docks. Roughly 4,000 Americans have made the trip, most of them elderly people at risk for dangerous flu complications. Dorothy Hinds and her 72-year-old husband, Jim, braved the trip even though they both get queasy on the water. “He said he’d rather be seasick than dead,” said Mrs Hinds.