Drivers stranded in snowstorm get COVID-19 vaccine
1 month 3 weeks 2 days ago
Thursday, January 28 2021
Jan 28, 2021
January 28, 2021 7:33 AM
January 28, 2021
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Source: CNN
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JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Oregon - A story that unfolds amid a deadly pandemic and hones in on a group of drivers who find themselves stranded in their vehicles during a snowstorm may sound more like the beginning of a Stephen King novel than the start of a feel-good news story.
But, according to CNN, when drivers in southwestern Oregon s Josephine County found themselves in this very situation, it led to an unexpected opportunity.
Josephine County Public Health said their workers were returning from a mass vaccination clinic at Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction when about 20 members of the group became stranded in a snowstorm at Hayes Hill.
Updated
Jan 28, 2021
Health Workers Stuck In Snow Give Expiring COVID-19 Vaccines To Other Drivers
With time running out, Oregon public health workers went car to car to ensure no vaccine went to waste.
In 1925, residents in the remote Alaskan town of Nome faced a grave crisis as a diphtheria epidemic swept through the city. At great personal risk, teams of sled dogs ferried a serum 674 miles through the brutal winter, saving thousands of lives.
Nearly 100 years later, a group of plucky public health workers in rural Oregon played out a similar delivery ― albeit with much lower stakes and far less danger.
Oregon health-care workers vaccinate strangers in middle of a snowstorm before extra covid-19 vaccine doses expired washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
January 28, 2021
The public health workers were driving back from a vaccination site in rural Cave Junction, Oregon, 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 tractor-trailer 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.
Oregon health care workers this week braved a snowstorm and skeptical motorists in a successful effort to keep six COVID-19 vaccine doses from going to waste.
The employees with Josephine County Public Health were driving back from a vaccine clinic event Tuesday when they got stuck in the storm, along with other motorists.
But the health workers had another problem: They still had six doses of an in-demand vaccine that were about to expire.
The nearly 20 employees decided they couldn t risk the doses going bad, so they trekked through the snow to offer the vaccine to motorists, according to an account published by the agency on Facebook.