Stranded Drivers End Up With Vaccine

When U.S. Highway 199 in southwest Oregon shut down for hours in the middle of a snowstorm this week, a county health department team knew the COVID-19 vaccines they had loaded into syringes would expire before they reached their destination.

So the team from the Josephine County Public Health Department bundled up and went looking for people to take the last six shots they hadn't needed at their vaccination event earlier Tuesday.

"I decided to start going door-to-door, car-to-car, offering" the vaccine, Michael Weber, Josephine County’s public health director, told the Washington Post.

The team shared its story on the health department's Facebook page late Tuesday.

Weber and 20 staffers and volunteers were giving COVID-19 vaccinations at a clinic set up at Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction, Oregon.

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Six shots of the vaccine from Moderna remained at the end of the clinic. The team knew it was a matter of hours before the vaccine expired after being put into syringes, but they had recipients waiting about 40 minutes away in Grants Pass.

They hadn't counted on a crash shutting down the highway for hours.

"We knew the vaccine would not make it back to Grants Pass," Weber said. "In all likelihood, it was going to expire."

The team had all the necessary forms and equipment, and an ambulance that had been at the vaccination clinic earlier was still nearby in case there was an emergency, like an allergic reaction.

As you can imagine, some of the motorists weren't eager to roll up their sleeves when the team knocked on their car windows.

David Candelaria, a health officer with Josephine County Public Health, told the Post, "We were a little nervous because not a lot of people in this part of the state are eager to get the vaccine at this point in time."

Weber said it took about 45 minutes to find six recipients and administer the shots.

Candelaria said one man took his shirt off so the team could inoculate him despite the snow swirling around him.

Another dose went to a Josephine County Sheriff's Office employee who had arrived too late for the clinic at the high school. She got stuck along with everyone else on her way back to Grants Pass.

"I can’t imagine a better way to spend four hours stuck in a snowstorm," Weber told the Post.

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