NEWS

NEWS State Grapples With COVID-19 Vaccine Distributions; Who Is Eligible and How to Get One

For just shy of a year, the pandemic has ruled not only Jefferson County or the state of Alabama but the entire world.

For the past four weeks, the Alabama Department of Public Health and medical community have faced a new COVID-19 challenge: vaccine distribution.

State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris recently dispelled misunderstandings concerning the process of distribution and shed light on what is to come.

Harris said public health leaders are determined that no vaccine will be left sitting unused on the shelf.

“We are making every effort to get shots into arms as quickly as possible,” he said. “The biggest obstacle to vaccination is still the limited vaccine supply. We are attempting to manage expectations, because the timeline for receipt of vaccine has not changed and we cannot give people a resource we don’t have yet.”

The ADPH noted that all county health departments have been required to administer all inventory of the vaccine each week. To combat the expiration of unused vaccine doses, the ADPH has been working to remove supplies from providers who are not administering them in a timely manner and redirect those doses to other providers.

Thus, no vaccine doses in Alabama have been discarded, according to ADPH officials.

Providers report vaccinations administered within 24 hours of giving them, at which point the ADPH updates its Immunization Patient Registry. The total number of vaccines administered is updated daily and can be found at alabamapublichealth.gov by clicking

In Jefferson County, you can register online through the county Emergency Management Agency website, jeffcoema. org, and you will be contacted to schedule an appointment.

on the link “COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Dashboard.”

Demand for the vaccine outweighs the state’s supply.

The state began its distribution plan by offering the vaccine to a group it dubbed 1a – frontline health care workers and people who live in nursing homes and other long-term care situations. Last week, it opened vaccines to some people in group 1b, namely anyone 75 years old and older. Stage 1a also still is in progress.

There is a population of more than 326,000 frontline health care workers and first responders, as well as nearly 350,000 people who are 75 or older. The state had received 502,950 vaccines and administered 249,356 doses as of Friday.

Those who are eligible to receive the vaccine can find a vaccine provider locator map online at arcg.is/OrCey. But patients are asked not to show up at those locations. An appointment is required.

In Jefferson County, you can register online through the county Emergency Management Agency website, jeffcoema.org, and you will be contacted to schedule an appointment. You also may call the local call center to register. The number is 205-858-2221. Outside of Jefferson County, call the state’s hotline at 855-566-5333.

Because of the limited number of appointments, the ADPH requests that members of the public who are not yet eligible for vaccination under the current distribution phase refrain from calling the hotline.

For general information about COVID-19, including locations where testing is available, call the COVID-19 Information Hotline number at 800270-7268. —Emily Williams-Robertshaw

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MEDICAL GIANT

From page one work for magazines and newspapers across the country. Edge also has authored several books and edited a number for other writers.

The vast amount of research conducted to write this book opened Edge’s eyes to a world within Birmingham that she had only experienced from one side, as a patient.

“I have used their services, I’ve been in their hospitals more times than I care to admit, so I knew some of the inner workings but never delved as deeply as I went into it when I started researching this book,” Edge said.

Stories From the Past

The industry is in many ways a product of its environment.

“Had Red Mountain not contained everything to make steel, there would never have been a steel industry and doctors would never have come to treat ailments from the steel industry,” Edge said. “I tried to set it against the history of what was going on in the city and county that caused these medical advancements to happen.”

Throughout the book, Edge recounts the history of the landscape of Birmingham, its people and how the medical community – built to help humanity live and thrive – was influenced by that history.

“One of the things about writing the book that was sometimes frustrating was that I would get up in the morning and say, ‘Today I’ve got to look up the first liver transplant,’” Edge said. “I would start down that path and find out that there were 16 little roads that went off of it that I needed to stop and research before I finished up that journey.”

Experienced With Pandemics

In the early years of a formulated medical community, Birmingham doctors were focused on treating deadly epidemics such as cholera, typhus and the 1918 Spanish flu, finding that each iteration brought its own quarantines and, on occasion, business shutdowns.

“I also found it very interesting that in some of the early coverage of the yellow fever epidemic, some of the doctors were saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. Only a few people are going to get it,’” she said.

Edge noticed similarities in the way Birmingham and the United States as a whole reacted in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I thought, we’ve heard this, and we should have learned from the yellow fever epidemic,” Edge said.

Women Claimed Ground

She was surprised by the role of female physicians in the Birmingham medical community, which drummed up many open-ended questions.

“I did find a lot of that interacting interesting, how women were ignored yet they were doctors,” she said. What was continually left out of the accounts were the reasons why women chose the area to practice, as there was, for much of its history, no substantial medical school in the area.

“I certainly don’t think it would be a very welcoming community for women,” she said.

There were female physicians who made headlines in the area.

‘Had Red Mountain not contained everything to make steel, there would never have been a steel industry and doctors would never have come to treat ailments from the steel industry.’

One of the city’s first female doctors was Dr. Annie May Robinson of Maryland.

She started her Birmingham-based obstetrics practice in about 1907 and lent her time as a house physician for the Salvation Army’s Rescue Home.

In addition to her work in the medical community, she was documented as one of Birmingham’s most outspoken suffragists.

In addition, Birmingham was home to Dr. Alice McNeal, one of the first females in the nation to chair an academic anesthesia department. She became the first female anesthesiologist to practice in Alabama in 1946, when she accepted a position as assistant professor of surgery and chief of the surgery department’s anesthesia division at the hospital of the Medical College of Alabama. She held the position until 1961.

Big Moments in History

One of the most interesting and fulfilling aspects of the process for Edge was having the chance to delve deeper into the medical community’s response to polarizing moments in history.

A hallmark of the research process for Edge was discovering what people in Birmingham were doing on the morning of Sept. 15, 1963, and reactions to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

“They got a call at the church that said how ever many minutes they had to get out of the church.” Edge said. “Those five minutes have always fascinated me, so being able to delve into that time and find out what other people were doing in the city is probably one of the most rewarding things.”

Edge was able to interview someone who knew exactly where George Seibels, later to become mayor of Birmingham, was during those five minutes: attending church at the Cathedral Church of the Advent.

“Seibels rushed from the church in the direction of the noise and found himself, after covering fewer than five blocks, staring at what he would describe as the worst thing he had ever seen,” Edge writes.

Hillman Hospital and University Hospital were readying their ERs. University received 12 victims and Hillman, 19.

Dr. Holt McDowell of Hillman Hospital and his fellow physicians set about to treat the 15 people that could be saved, while a fellow doctor oversaw a temporary morgue for those who were killed.

It was one of a number of incidents in the early 60s that brought victims of racial violence into Birmingham ERs.

Just days after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, a local doctor took down signs segregating restrooms in his office and a wave of integration followed in medical facilities and hospitals throughout the city.

Throughout the book, there are plenty of surprises and discoveries to be found as Edge recounts major historical events and occurrences, as well as great strides in technology, research and treatment.

“This whole state is intertwined, even though Jefferson county and Birmingham are probably the center of medical research,” Edge said.

Signed copies of the book are currently available at Alabama Booksmith.

Writing During a Pandemic

One of the main challenges Edge faced throughout the process of writing her book was the emergence of the COVID19 pandemic.

Shutdowns hampered Edge’s research.

“It became more difficult as libraries closed, and there were other research facilities that weren’t available to me anymore,” she said. Lynn Edge

“Thank goodness for things like newspaper.com because I could go back and read through old newspapers.”

Sources also included a few books that people had written in years past about the early history of the Birmingham medical community. She also conducted interviews with a number of current and retired medical professionals, who she said were typically stuck at home and easily contacted for an interview.

“I also depended a lot on the notes from the Jefferson County Medical Society because they kept excellent minutes from their meetings,” she said.

One of the major challenges Edge faced during the process was finding an ending while a global health crisis was going on.

“The funny thing about finishing up the book during a pandemic was that we were never quite sure that we were finished,” Edge said. “Every time we would write something, another thing would change and you’d have to go back in and add it.”

At a certain point, Edge had to say “enough is enough” and formulate a conclusion to a history that is ongoing and ever-developing.

“This is by no means the end of the history,” she said.

There was a span of time during which Edge and the Legacy Publishing Company team were worried that as the book was being printed, something monumental would occur. UAB researchers could potentially find not only a vaccine for the virus, but stumble upon a cure.

“The ending is really what you draw from it, that every single minute it’s changing,” Edge said. “The ending is that, yes, we are doing research on the coronavirus and are one of the forefronts of creating a vaccine, but we might accidentally find a cure.”

“I think the lesson is that it is a very fluid industry, even though there are certain rules,” she added. “Gravity isn’t going to change. If you fall down and skin your knee, you’re going to need a doctor. But it is an exciting industry. Tomorrow, something extraordinary could happen right here.”

Real Men Wear Pink Breast Cancer Campaign Kicks Off

The “real men” have lined up to take part in this year’s Real Men Wear Pink campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer and money to fight it.

The men met virtually Jan. 18 to kickstart their efforts. They’ll be wearing something pink every day in February as part of their competition to beat all of their peers and become the top fundraiser in the area. This is the sixth year of the campaign in Central Alabama.

“Breast cancer affects everyone,” said Aubie Clements, community development

‘The COVID pandemic has given cancer the advantage, as women were forced to postpone regular breast cancer screenings earlier this year.’

manager for the American Cancer Society. “One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. These are sisters, mothers, grandmothers and friends.”

She applauded the men who have joined with the American Cancer Society in the fight against breast cancer.

“This is a cause they personally believe in and (they) are committed to raising awareness and funds for the fight against breast cancer,” she said.

“The COVID pandemic has given cancer the advantage, as women were forced to postpone regular breast cancer screenings earlier this year,” added Clements. “We are grateful to our Real Men Wear Pink participants for lending their voices to raise awareness and funds for everyone fighting breast cancer.”

According to the American Cancer Society Facts & Figures 2021, an estimated 284,200 people in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and an estimated 44,130 will die from the disease this year.

In Alabama, 4,460 women will be diagnosed this year and 720 will die from the disease. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, and it is the most common cancer diagnosed in women other than skin cancer.

For more information about breast cancer or the Real Men Wear Pink campaign in Central Alabama, visit RealMenBham.com.

This year’s Real Men Wear Pink participants in central Alabama are: Quentin Riggins, Ronnie Rice, Bob Dickerson, Mike Hendrickson, Bill Witting, Patrick Strubel, Trent Hallmark, Scott Sobera, Jon Register, Hunter Houston, Timothy Puthoff, Phillip Houston, Trip Cobb, Steven Jackson, Jason Avery, Rickey Passey and Mark Pettaway.