Grants Pass, Oregon – Oregon health workers who became trapped in a snowstorm on their way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event went car to car injecting stranded drivers before several doses expired. Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “makeshift vaccination clinic” occurred after about 20 traffic workers were detained on a highway following a vaccination clinic Tuesday.
KTVL-TV, affiliated with CBS Medford, Oregon, reported that they were stuck near Hayes Hill on their way to Grants Pass after manning a vaccination clinic at Illinois Valley High School.
Six of the doses were for people in Grants Pass, but “the snow meant those doses wouldn’t make it until they expired,” the health department said in a Facebook post.
KTVL-TV
KTVL explained that the doses would have expired six hours after opening.
Not wanting to waste them, staff walked from vehicle to vehicle to give people the chance to get the vaccine. A county ambulance was available for safety.
All doses were administered, including one to a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office employee who arrived late for the vaccination clinic but eventually dropped out of the others, officials said.
Mike Weber, Josephine County’s Director of Health, said it was one of the “coolest surgeries he was a part of.”