The US started mass vaccination in December, which is still lagging behind. Joe Biden’s administration intends to provide 100 million doses of vaccinations in its first 100 days, by the end of April, as he described the US vaccine rollout as a “dismal failure”.
A US Army veteran from Florida, 79-year-old Seymour Kagan, said he felt “disrespected” when his local Veteran Affairs (VA) clinic denied him the opportunity to receive a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine for free because his income is too high, Fox News reported Friday.
Kagan, who retired as captain of the US Army in 1969, is one of many military veterans of the state of Florida who has met obstacles while attempting to obtain vaccine inoculations from VA clinics, according to the report. Under federal law, one of the variables in deciding if they are entitled to receive their cost-free benefits is how much cash a veteran earns annually.
The military veteran said that he applied for a free-of-charge vaccine shot in mid-January after he met with a fellow veteran who said he was inoculated by the VA. He then went to his local clinic in Sarasota, with the intention of getting one himself.
Kagan says he was told over the phone days later, after filling out paperwork, that he was not entitled to receive the vaccine in the clinic on the grounds that his annual income met the local cap of the VA. That figure reportedly starts at $43,670 for a single veteran in Sarasota County and then scales upwards depending on the number of their dependents.
The VA said in a statement that it is “focusing efforts on the allotment of vaccines we have received for enrolled, eligible Veterans who are listed in our highest risk categories,” but that it is also “working with the White House and FEMA to explore ways in which VA can assist with the Nation’s vaccination efforts, to include covering Veterans not currently enrolled for VA health care.”
Meanwhile, in trying to get a vaccine shot elsewhere, Kagan has reportedly been unsuccessful. And he’s not the first veteran to share experiences of this sort.
Last month, according to local media, Paul Jacobs, a 91-year-old Army veteran, was also turned away by a VA clinic in West Palm Beach because of his salary.
Just like Jacobs, a 76-year-old US Navy Vietnam war veteran, Bob Hulsy, also was refused a free shot of the vaccine.
“Too much income, no shot,” he said.
The US leads the world in the number of people infected with coronavirus and the number of deaths. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, which summarizes data from federal and local authorities across the globe, as well as the media and other open sources, over 26.7 million people have already been infected in the country, while more than 457,000 have died.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
0.00 (0%) 0 votes
