April 03 2021
More than 5,000 cars per day, served by an army of volunteers, has led to more than 85,000 shots.
It's as if the people who built Disneyland reimagined a M*A*S*H unit.
The choreographed craziness of an average day at the mass vaccination site at Portland International Airport is a staggering amalgam of nearly 500 volunteers per day on 22 square acres of the airport's Red Lot, taking in around 5,200 cars filled with people wanting to receive their first or second shot of the anti-coronavirus vaccine. It's 400 orange traffic cones and massive circus tents and the constant roar of incoming aircraft, not that far overhead. It's the military precision of professionals and volunteers — many of whom wear goofy hats or wave pompoms — and, as of last Friday, the Herculean effort has put more than 85,000 doses of vaccine into the arms of Oregonians anxious for a glimpse of the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.