Health workers from Oregon who were trapped in a blizzard on their way back from a Covid-19 vaccination event went on foot from car to car to inject stranded drivers before a few doses expired.
The Josephine County District Department of Health said on Facebook that the “impromptu vaccine clinic” took place after about 20 employees were stopped in traffic on a highway to a vaccination clinic.
Six of the vaccines were almost expiring, and the workers decided to offer them to other stranded drivers.
The shots were intended for other people, but ‘the snow meant the doses would not reach it until it expired’, the health department said.
Because they did not want to waste, staff walked from vehicle to vehicle and gave people the chance to receive the vaccine. An ambulance was available for safety.
All the doses were administered, including one for an office of the sheriff in the Josephine district, who arrived too late for the vaccination clinic, but eventually stopped at the other.
Josephine’s director of public health, Mike Weber, said it was one of the “coolest surgeries” he has ever had.