Mexico, with help from San Diego, sends some minors cross the border to get coronavirus vaccine

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Scores of Mexican adolescents were bused to California on Thursday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as efforts get underway across Mexico to get shots in the arms of teens.

Mexico has resisted vaccinating minors ages 12 to 17, in part because the government focused on older adults believed to be more vulnerable. Mexico also has not had enough vaccine supply for most of its minors, who account for one-third of its population. The country this month is preparing to start vaccinating only teens ages 15-17.

So a group in San Diego along with San Diego County stepped in to help their neighbor.

The pilot program in San Diego aims to get shots in the arms of 450 youths ages 12 to 17 before it ends in late December. The adolescents from Tijuana were selected by Mexican social service organizations, including those who work with the children of parents deported from the United States....

All of the adolescents have a U.S. visa or passport, but they were unable to come to the United States before now to get the vaccine because they did not have an adult able to cross the border with them, said Carlos González Gutiérrez, the Mexican consul in San Diego. ...