Stuck in the snow, vaccination team gets to work
The public health workers were driving back from a vaccination site in rural Cave Junction, Ore., on Tuesday when they got stuck in a snowstorm on the highway.
They knew they had only six hours to get the remaining doses of coronavirus vaccine back to people who were waiting for their shots in Grants Pass, roughly 30 miles away. Normally, the trip takes about 45 minutes.
But with a jackknifed tractortrailer ahead of them, the crew realized they could be stuck for hours and the doses would expire.
So the workers made the decision to walk from car to car asking stranded drivers if they wanted to be vaccinated, right there on the spot.
“We had one individual who was so happy, he took his shirt off and jumped out of the car,” said Michael Weber, the public health director in Josephine County, Ore.
Most drivers laughed at the offer of a roadside coronavirus vaccine and politely declined, even though Weber said he had a doctor and an ambulance crew on hand to help oversee the operation.
Still, Weber said the public health workers had administered all six doses of the Moderna vaccine to six grateful drivers.
Weber called it “one of the coolest operations” he had ever been a part of and said it had been an easy decision to administer the shots on the highway.
“Honestly, once we knew we weren’t going to be back in town in time to use the vaccine, it was just the obvious choice,” he said.