October 3, 2023 - Latest Data & The Nobel Prize

Latest Data & The Nobel Prize

October 3, 2023

I am pleased to report that the late-summer spike in Alabama Covid hospitalizations continues to abate. For the week ending September 23, there were 289 new statewide admissions compared to 338 the prior week - a decline of 14.5%. It is the third consecutive weekly reduction in the number of new admissions in Alabama. Within Alabama, new admissions dropped 21% in the Birmingham MSA; 17% in the Mobile MSA; and 3% in Madison County (Huntsville). New admissions in the Montgomery MSA, however, rose 47% in the latest data. Note: weekly county data is often volatile.

On a per capita basis, Alabama’s new weekly rate of 5.89 admissions per 100K population is now slightly above the national rate of 5.75 per 100K. There was also an improvement in other Southern states, including Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee. Late September and the months of October and November have typically been the kindest months in terms of Covid infections in the South. 

In contrast, several states with colder climates saw a rise in hospital admissions during the week of September 23. For example, Connecticut, Montana, Delaware, Wisconsin and the Dakotas each experienced >25% rise in hospitalizations that week. Montana led the nation with a weekly rate of 10.8 admissions per 100K, followed by West VIrginia at 9.5 admissions per 100K. Florida and Arkansas are the only Southern states that are still listed in the top 10 in per capita admissions in the latest data. Of course, the comparative data will inevitably ebb and flow as the seasons change.

I plan to take next week off because my wife and I will be traveling. I anticipate that the current downward trend in Alabama’s hospitalizations will continue, but I will be monitoring the data. Before I close, however, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and salute two people without whom the Covid-19 pandemic would have been far more catastrophic than it was. 

Dr. Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman met in the early 1990s while working at the University of Pennsylvania, when their interest in mRNA technology was seen as a scientific backwater. They did not invent mRNA technology. Nor did they invent mRNA vaccines. But Drs. Kariko and Weissman made crucial scientific breakthroughs which allowed mRNA vaccines to be developed and safely administered. By refining this revolutionary technology, these two brilliant researchers determined how to produce large amounts of the coronavirus spike protein (thus triggering the immune response that defeats the virus) without causing dangerous levels of inflammation which had plagued previous animal experiments.

The scientific discoveries made by Drs. Kariko and Weissman are already credited with saving the lives of millions of people throughout the world. But that’s not all. It is believed that mRNA technology may prove to be game-changing in other applications as well, including potential vaccines for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and cancer. For their efforts, Drs. Kariko and Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.