“We have arrived in the U.S. not for the American dream, we are here for the vaccine dream,” 49-year-old Elver Estela told CNN. The businessman had traveled from Peru looking for the Covid-19 vaccine and got his first dose of Pfizer at a vaccination center in Seattle.
Earlier this year, Estela had decided to travel to the U.S. — where vaccines were relatively abundant — after seeing many people close to him become sick with the coronavirus, an experience he likened to Russian roulette. With over 68,000 deaths attributable to Covid-19 in a population of 32 million, Peru is one of the worst hit countries in Latin America.
By the time Estela finally arrived in the U.S. during the first week of May, he learned one of his closest co-workers had tested positive for the virus back home in Lima.
