Oregon health officials give coronavirus vaccine to fellow motorists stuck in a snowstorm

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Health officials in southern Oregon said staff gave out six doses of the coronavirus vaccine to motorists at an “impromptu vaccine clinic” along a roadside in a snowstorm.

Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that about 20 of its personnel became stranded Tuesday on U.S. Highway 199 near Hayes Hill on their way to Grants Pass after staffing a nearby vaccination event.

The vaccines, which must be stored at extremely low temperatures, were getting close to expiring, so officials decided to offer them to other stranded motorists.

“Recipients had been identified in Grants Pass, but the snow meant those doses wouldn’t make it to them before they expired,” the health department said.

Not wanting to waste doses, staff began walking from car to car, offering people a chance at receiving the vaccine, with a county ambulance on hand for safety, officials said.

All the doses were administered, including one to a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office employee who had arrived too late for the vaccination clinic but ended up stopped with the others, officials said.

Mike Weber, Josephine County Public Health director said it was one of the “coolest operations he’d been a part of.”