April 2, 2021
Governor Kay announced today that every Alabamian 16 years of age and up will become eligible for a vaccine starting next Monday, April 5. Please join me in celebrating Universal Eligibility Day!
For the last 3 weeks, my newsletter has been published only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I decided to make an exception today - Good Friday - due to the importance of this announcement. When I dropped my letter yesterday, I was unaware that this news would be forthcoming so soon. Having been critical of Governor Ivey in that letter, it is only fair that I praise her decision today.
I believe it was a moral imperative for every citizen to be given the right to get vaccinated before statewide restrictions are lifted next Friday. Governor Ivey was wise to recognize that moral imperative and to act on it. We are far from finished with this pandemic - 400 more new cases reported today and 53 deaths - but at least we can now take comfort that every adult, age 16 and older, who wants to be protected from this deadly virus is eligible to be vaccinated, beginning Monday.
It has been a long road to reach this point - over 516,000 cases and 10,600 deaths in Alabama alone. In the U.S. as a whole, over 76,000 new cases were reported on April 1, the second highest total since the end of February. Ten weeks ago, I wrote that we are “... entering a critical new phase that will be determined by the outcome of the ultimate race between vaccines and variants.” (See, January 23, 2021 - “The Ultimate Race”). This race has only intensified since then, but now the last hurdles have been removed and we’re on the home stretch. The totals:
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
4/2 - 400