December 15, 2020 - Relief and Joy Personified
Relief and Joy Personified
December 15, 2020
UAB Hospital received its first shipment of 11,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine today!! If you want to see relief and joy personified, watch this video of Tomie Ann Boackle, Associate Chief Pharmacy Officer:
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UAB has been entrusted with vaccinating medical professionals for the 7-county region within a 40-mile radius of Birmingham, including 7,507 hospital-based personnel, 1,609 clinic-based personnel and 1,609 emergency medical system (EMS) personnel. UAB will begin its vaccinations by appointment on Thursday due to the logistical challenges of coordinating the entire region. Cullman Regional and Southeast Alabama Medical (Dothan) began vaccinating their personnel this morning.
At a morning press conference, Dr. Sarah Nafziger of UAB emphasized that the vaccine will not help reduce the current surge, which only got worse today. Exactly one month ago, statewide COVID hospitalizations stood at 1,124. Now, our hospitals are treating more than twice that number - 2,353 in all. More than 90% of the ICU beds in the State are occupied, third highest utilization rate in the nation. We cannot afford to replicate the experience of New York City last spring, which demonstrated what can happen when hospitals become overwhelmed. We have already witnessed 4,124 COVID-related deaths so far, with 22 more being announced today.
And the cases keep coming. ADPH announced 3,638 more cases today (incl. 1,397 probables) and just 8,537 tests. That makes a one-day positivity rate of 42.6% and a 7-day rolling average of 33.2%. The State surpassed 300,000 cases overall (6% of the State population) on the same day the United States crossed the 17 million mark (5% of the national population).
In a state like ours, where so many residents will not comply with basic public health protocols like mask-wearing and social distancing, our last and best hope to defeat this virus rests with vaccines. A new national survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one-quarter of Americans say they probably or definitely would not take a coronavirus vaccine. According to the survey, Republican, rural and Black Americans are among the most hesitant to be vaccinated. The survey was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 8.
If you or someone in your family is undecided about whether to get vaccinated, watch the UAB video again and remember Tomie Ann Boackle. Think of the doctors and nurses around the State. Go get the vaccine because it is the right thing to do. The totals:
12/2 - 3928
12/3 - 3531
12/4 - 3840
12/5 - 3390
12/6 - 2288
12/7 - 2335
12/8 - 4436
12/9 - 3522
12/10 - 4735
12/11 - 3853
12/12 - 406
12/13 - 2790
12/14 - 2264
12/15 - 3638
Here are the 5 counties that reported the highest case total today: Jefferson -568; Tuscaloosa - 216; Montgomery - 195; Mobile -194; Madison - 177. In addition,17 counties, one-quarter of all the counties in Alabama, now have 14-day positivity rates exceeding 40%.