GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – Oregon health workers who were stuck in a snowstorm on their return from a COVID-19 vaccination event went from car to car injecting blocked drivers before several doses expired.
Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “improvised vaccine clinic” took place after about 20 employees were stopped in traffic on a highway after a vaccination clinic.
Six of the vaccines were about to expire, so the workers decided to offer them to other stranded drivers.
The images were intended for other people, but “the snow meant that these doses would not reach them before they expired,” the health department said.
Not wanting to scatter them, the staff went from vehicle to vehicle, giving people a chance to receive the vaccine. A county ambulance was on hand for safety.
All doses were administered, including one to an employee of County Sheriff Josephine’s office who arrived too late for the vaccination clinic but ended up stopping with the others, officials said.
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber said it was one of “the strongest operations he had been involved in.”