(Reuters) – Setback turned to success for six people stranded on a snowy roadway in Oregon when a COVID-19 vaccine team returning from a clinic with unused doses gave them roadside shots.
Stuck by a snowstorm slamming Highway 199 in southwestern Oregon, the healthcare team that ran a mass vaccination event at a local high school on Tuesday quickly realized that six leftover inoculations would spoil before they could get to the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, to administer them as planned, according to the Josephine County Public Health Facebook page.
Instead, the JCPH staff and volunteers walked car to car, offering stranded motorists a chance to get vaccinated. One of the thrilled recipients was a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office employee who had arrived too late for the school clinic but ended up in the team’s roadside care amid the snowstorm.
“It was one of the coolest operations,” said JCPH Director Mike Weber, according to the team’s Facebook page.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
