Grants Pass, Oregon – Oregon health workers who were trapped in a snowstorm on their way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event were injecting cars into blocked driver’s cars before several doses expired. Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “makeshift vaccine clinic” occurred after about 20 employees on a road were stopped in traffic on Tuesday.
KTVL-TV, affiliated with CBS Medford, Oregon, reported being trapped near Hayes Hill on their way to Grants Pass after setting up a vaccine clinic at Illinois Valley High School.
Six of the doses were intended for people at Grants Pass, but “the snow meant those doses would not reach them before they expired,” the health department said in a Facebook message.
KTVL-TV
KTVL explained that the doses would have expired six hours after opening.
Not wanting to waste them, the staff walked from vehicle to vehicle, offering people the opportunity to receive the vaccine. For safety, there was a county ambulance.
All doses were administered, including one to an employee of the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office, who had arrived too late at the vaccination clinic but ended up with the others, officials said.
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber said it was one of the “coolest operations I’ve been a part of.”