Health workers stranded in Oregon snowstorm give out doses of Covid vaccine set to expire

It’s the latest in the occasionally random distribution of the vaccine in the US

A snow storm in southwest Oregon turned into a piece of unexpected good on fortune for stranded drivers on Tuesday when health workers stuck in the storm on their way to a Covid vaccination site went car-to-car giving out extra doses that were set to expire.

Workers from the Josephine County public health department were heading back from a Covid clinic at a local high school, on their way to their next vaccination stop, when they got snuck in the snow behind a disabled trailor.

They had six leftover doses of the Moderna vaccine, which can only go without refrigeration for 12 hours, so they went car-to-car offering the shot until their supply was empty.

 

“We had one individual who was so happy, he took his shirt off and jumped out of the car,” Michael Weber, the public health director in Josephine County, told The New York Times.

One person who got the vaccine in the impromptu road-side sessions was a sheriff’s office employee who had been trying to get to the high school clinic but got stuck in the snow.

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Mr Weber added that many were sceptical of the offer and declined the treatment.

“It was a strange conversation,” Mr. Weber said. “Imagine yourself stranded on the side of the road in a snowstorm and having someone walk up and say: ‘Hey. Would you like a shot in the arm?’”

The finer points of vaccine distribution have largely been left to individual state and local health authorities, leading to a chaotic rollout where random people lucky enough to be in a hospital or supermarket pharmacy at the right time get a vaccine, while others argue that essential workers like food delivery drivers and others are being shortchanged.

So far, according to data from NBC News, most states haven’t vaccinated more than 2 per cent of their population, and many haven’t even cracked a whole-number percentage yet.

The Biden administration says it is working to get another 200 million doses of the two approved Covid vaccines, and aims to vaccinate the entire adult population by the end of the summer.

Meanwhile, on the global stage, despite the apparent problems in the rollout, countries like South Africa have criticized the US for hoarding vaccine supplies.

“We are all not safe if some countries are vaccinating their people and other countries are not vaccinating,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a recent World Economic Forum meeting. “We all must act together in combating the virus.”