April 1, 2021
Today is Opening Day in Major League Baseball which, for a lifelong Braves fan like me, is a day that has always represented limitless possibilities. On February 24, Alabama administered, on average, 23,700 doses of vaccines per day in the prior week. So, I wrote a piece on that day, entitled, “Play Ball!”, in which I expressed the belief that we could reach the point of universal vaccine eligibility by Opening Day, April 1, if only our State would increase the daily average by 20% (to 28,000 doses per day).
The following week, the daily average dropped to 22,900 per day before rising to an average of 26,000 each day thereafter. Although we didn’t quite reach the marker I proposed, we came close. There are 34 states that actually have achieved universal eligibility or will do so by the end of this week. Alabama is only one of 5 states that have not publicly committed to make vaccines available to everyone, regardless of age, before May 1.
On April 9, the day Gov. Ivey plans to lift all statewide public health restrictions, there will be hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who cannot obtain a vaccination solely because the State has decided to withhold that privilege. Think about that for a moment. On the same day thousands of unvaccinated citizens will be permitted to infect others because they choose not to wear a mask, thousands more will not be permitted to protect themselves by getting a shot. Gov. Ivey has described her decision as “moving toward personal responsibility”. On what planet does “personal responsibility” require that unvaccinated citizens be allowed to infect others but not to protect themselves?
Alabama had 478 new daily cases today (incl.165 probables) and 408 cases yesterday, for a 7-day average of 390 cases per day. The 7-day moving average for positivity is 12.4%. There were 3.25 patients per reporting hospital, the lowest level since early April.
In the last week in the U.S., an average of 2.83 million doses per day were administered, a 14% increase over the week before. Meanwhile, Alabama has administered at least one dose to 1,155,139 people, covering 29.3% of the eligible population and 23.6% of the State’s entire population. At least 615,577 people have been fully vaccinated, or 12.6% of the entire population.
So, it may be Opening Day for Major League Baseball, but it won’t be Opening Day in Alabama until every citizen is empowered to get protection from this virus. Alabama’s Opening Day should be Universal Eligibility Day. The totals:
3/19- 531
3/20- 508
3/21- 373
3/22- 319
3/23- 10 (due to “technical difficulties”)
3/24- 922
3/25- 427
3/26- 442
3/27- 492
3/28- 319
3/29- 228
3/30- 361
3/31- 408
4/1 - 478