GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – Health workers in Oregon who got stuck in a snowstorm on their way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event went car to car and injected stranded drivers before several of the doses expired.
Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “makeshift vaccination clinic” took place after about 20 workers were detained in traffic on a highway following a vaccination clinic.
Six of the vaccines were about to expire, so the workers decided to offer them to other stranded drivers.
The shots were meant for other people, but “the snow meant those doses wouldn’t make it until they expired,” the health department said.
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.
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber said it was one of the “coolest surgeries he’s been a part of.”