NEWS

By RuBin E. GRant

Shelley Stewart has received his share of recognition throughout the years, but his next honor is special to him because of what it represents.

“It’s business, business, business,” Stewart said. “That’s what struck me as different. This is the greatest country in the world. I know because I have traveled extensively. It’s great because of business. It’s business that improves the quality of life. It creates jobs and moves the economy.”

Stewart, 87, co-founder of o2ideas, a 54-year-old advertising agency in Birmingham, will be among the business leaders the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham is honoring for shaping the Magic City’s economy and contributing to Birmingham’s growth.

Stewart has been selected for the 2020-21 class of inductees into the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame.

“I am blessed and thankful,” Lewis said. “I am a business person.”

The other honorees are Grayson Hall Jr., Regions Financial Corp.; John A. Hand, First National Bank of Birmingham; Elmer B. Harris, Alabama Power Co.; Dr. Basil I. Hirschowitz, UAB gastroenterology; Thomas E. Jernigan, Marathon Corp.; Billy Charles Martin, Martin Advertising; William R. Pettiford, Alabama Penny Savings Bank; and W. Edgar Welden Sr, WeldenField.

The Birmingham Business Hall of Fame Committee annually selects business leaders to induct into the hall of fame who have shown strong leadership and made extraordinary contributions to the Greater Birmingham area. Inductees can be living or deceased.

The 550-plus members of the downtown Kiwanis invite the community to join them as they recognize the business leaders in a ceremony to be held at the Harbert Center on Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m.

Since 1997, the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham, the world’s largest Kiwanis, has inducted Birmingham’s leaders into the hall of fame. It’s part of the more than 100-year-old club’s mission of building a stronger community.

Stewart, who grew up in Rosedale and is often referred to as a living legend, dedicated himself to education and entrepreneurialism to overcome homelessness, abuse and discrimination.

He graduated from Parker High School and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he served from 1952 to 1953. After his military service, Stewart returned to Birmingham and was hired by WEDR-AM as a radio personality known as “Shelley The Playboy.” He enjoyed immense popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming a vocal champion for civil rights and a friend of such musical up-and-comers as Otis Redding, Gladys Knight and Isaac Hayes. He also became owner of Birmingham radio station WATV.

Stewart was on air for 55 years, becoming the longest-running radio talent in the nation and appealing to black and white audiences. All the while, he made sure to maintain the business connections he started when he was working at a grocery store as a young teenager.

“When I was 13, I got a job at Yeilding grocery store on Second Avenue and 22nd Street, stocking merchandise,” Stewart said. “I became interested in the business side and when I would make deliveries to all the other stores, I would talk to owners and managers, asking them how to do this and that.

“Even after I started in radio, I continued my relationships with business people.”

Photos courtesy o2ideas

Shelley Stewart, 87, co-founder of o2ideas, a 54-year-old advertising agency in Birmingham, will be among the business leaders (see others below) the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham is honoring for shaping the Magic City’s economy and contributing to Birmingham’s growth. The event will is to be held at the Harbert Center on Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m. Business Is Great

Stewart Thankful for Hall of Fame Recognition

Silent Partner

In 1967, Stewart co-founded o2ideas with a white, Jewish radio salesman, Cy Steiner. The agency was originally called Steiner Advertising, with Stewart as a silent partner because of his race.

“Cy and I formed the agency on a handshake,” Stewart said. “Cy could sell openly. I couldn’t. We decided to call the agency Steiner Advertising from the beginning to not publicly acknowledge the black and white relationship because we wanted to establish a business to serve America. Our clients knew we were partners, but they hid it for us, and we hid it within the agency itself.

“If advertising is done right, it will cross over. It’s not all black and it’s not all white.”

After Steiner died, Stewart publicly took over in 1992. He eventually amassed a majority stake in what become known as o2 Ideas, which is one of the country’s largest privately held corporate communication companies. He sold the business to his partners in 2015.

The independent agency is part of Worldwide Partners and is now run by Bill Todd, a former public relations practitioner who joined o2ideas in 2001. Its clients include world-class health care, pharmaceutical, insurance, manufacturing, construction and retail companies, including BBVA bank, Honda, UAB and Verizon.

Stewart also co-authored two books, “The Road South: A Memoir,” co-written with Nathan Hale Turner, and “Mattie C.’s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story,” with Don Keith.

He continues to impact the community through his Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, named after his mother. It helps young people prepare for adulthood. He works from his home in Vandiver in Shelby County.

“I am thankful to be alive and do this,” Stewart said. “I hope to continue to tell many young people about education and business.”

BIRMINGHAM BUSINESS HALL OF FAME 2020-2021 INDUCTEES

Grayson Hall Jr., Regions Financial Corp. John A. Hand, First National Bank of Birmingham

Elmer Harris, Alabama Power Company

Dr. Basil Hirschowitz, UAB Gastroenterology

Thomas E. Jernigan, Marathon Corp. Billy Charles Martin, Martin Advertising

William R. Pettiford, Alabama Penny Savings Bank

W. Edgar Welden Sr., WeldenField

UAB Experts Answer Common Questions on COVID-19 Delta Variant

By Emily Williams-RoBERtshaW

It’s more infectious than smallpox and Ebola.

Over the past few weeks, as COVID-19 cases rose with the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the forecast of infections and deaths offered by public health officials has been grim.

Medical experts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have been releasing videos, hosting panel discussions and conducting social media Q&A sessions to help inform the public about how to protect themselves.

Transmission

According to Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of UAB’s Division of Infectious Diseases, “The Delta variant is much more infectious than any virus we have had to deal with as a routine respiratory virus in the population, ever, in our lifetime.”

The COVID-19 strain is more transmissible than well-known and feared diseases such as Ebola, smallpox and the original SARS strain.

“If that doesn’t sort of scare you, I’m really not sure how you can frame this in a way that gets people’s attention,” she said.

Marrazzo noted that, while the Delta variant can overcome vaccine protection, people who are vaccinated generally get less sick and die less often than those who are not vaccinated.

“Cases are high in the South right now in direct proportion to our lack of vaccine coverage,” Marrazzo said.

Marrazzo noted that the places in the country that have the best vaccine coverage – for example, 70% to 75% of the population vaccinated – also have the lowest COVID-19 case levels.

“You can see this most dramatically largely in New England states, particularly Vermont,” she said. “They got to about 85% vaccination coverage very early and they literally have had almost no COVID cases during this latest wave.”

According to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control, Alabama has maintained the lowest vaccination rate in the country, with just more than 34% of the population vaccinated as of last week. See DELTA, page 7

From page 6

At the same time, COVID-related hospitalizations in early August had grown tenfold, nearing 2,000 patients, compared to the state’s low point, on June 20.

Dr. Suzanne Judd, who teaches in UAB’s Department of Public Health, has predicted that Alabama could reach a peak of 13,000 new cases per day by the end of August, if the recent rate of transmission in south Alabama continues and spreads to the rest of the state. That’s more than triple the number of daily cases recorded in Alabama at the height of the pandemic in January.

Protect Yourself and Others

The two ways the public can not only protect themselves but also end the pandemic is through reaching a high vaccination rate and wearing masks.

The vice president of UAB Hospital Clinical Services, Dr. Sarah Nafziger, noted that the emergence of variants has been a concern since the beginning of the pandemic.

Medical officials were concerned about early variants including Alpha, first identified in the United Kingdom; the South African Beta variant; Delta, identified in India; and Gamma of Brazil. Nafziger said that while most did not pan out to be of a great threat, the Delta variant is a game changer.

“The good news, the vaccine works against Delta,” Nafziger said.

In the beginning of the pandemic, the only protection lay in social distancing, masking, hand washing and enhanced cleaning. Many of those practices aren’t enough against this highly transmissible variant, Nafziger noted.

“If we can get a high vaccination rate and we combine that with masking, which is something that we can do in the interim to keep ourselves safe, we can put an end to this pandemic,” she said.

Why Get Vaccinated?

The vaccine protects many people from getting COVID-19 at all and others from the more serious symptoms of the virus.

Data from ADPH reveals that 99% of COVID-related deaths reported from Jan. 19 to June 30 were in people who were unvaccinated.

“Even though you can get infected with Delta, more than we did with the earlier variants of the virus, we do know that the vaccine protects us from getting very sick, especially young people,” said Dr. Michael Saag, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Delta is a different animal, but the vaccine is protecting us, those of us who are vaccinated, to a very high degree in terms of protection against hospitalization, going on a breathing machine and possibly dying.”

Researchers have not yet determined how long antibodies for the virus remain effective, so it is important to get the vaccines regardless of whether you have had COVID previously.

Studies also are supporting the safety of the vaccine, despite the wealth of misinformation that can easily be found online. Pharmaceutical companies had been working for years to develop vaccines for other coronaviruses when COVID-19 came along. They were able to adapt the technology they’d been working on for other viruses and target it on what at first was called the novel coronavirus. They also were able to drastically accelerate their work because they suddenly were awash in money available to fight the virus.

Common vaccine side effects such as fever, chills, pain at the injection site and tiredness are normal signs of the body building immunity. In addition, experts have found no evidence to suggest that fertility issues are a side effect of any vaccine, including the COVID19 vaccines.

United Ability Program Snags Award for Disability Employment Services

United Ability’s Employment Services Program on Aug. 5 was awarded the prestigious Jim Green Agency of the Year Award by the Alabama Association of People Supporting Employment First.

The award is presented to an organization or agency that administers services to individuals with disabilities to promote greater community integration and to increase employment opportunities.

In 2020, United Ability Employment Services served more than 1,200 people across four employment programs and helped place 62 of them in jobs, according to a statement issued by United Ability. One hundred sixty were helped to maintain employment.

Of eligible clients, 73% were placed in competitive employment during a global pandemic.

The team implemented new ways to serve individuals with disabilities by doing virtual assessments with clients while working with essential businesses to develop new jobs.

United Ability was one of two agencies in the greater Birmingham area to provide a summer work program to help students with disabilities gain the skills needed for employment.

“We are proud to have been able to continue to provide services,” said Katie Dumais, director of employment services at United Ability, “and this year challenged us to adapt our services and create new programs, which we not only did but did successfully.”

“We are incredibly proud of our employment services team and grateful for their care and support of those we serve,” said Susan Sellers, United Ability’s CEO.

Vaccine Breakthrough Cases

While the vaccine is a person’s first line of defense against the Delta variant, it isn’t the only defense.

Saag said it’s important for the public to keep in mind that the medical community is continually learning more about the illness.

The vaccine was proven highly effective against both the original strain of COVID and the Alpha variant, but the Delta variant is proving more difficult. It more easily infects people, even those who are fully vaccinated.

“When that happens, what is a little bit surprising is that they can transmit that virus that they’re infected with to others, even other people who are vaccinated,” Saag said.

On the horizon is another variant, dubbed Lambda, that also seems to be more contagious than the original COVID-19. It appears that vaccines may be less effective against Lambda, too, but studies on that variant have not been going on long enough to be sure.

To protect yourself and others, Saag notes that it is important to return to mask-wearing practices.

“We have a storm coming. I would call it a hurricane, and we need to protect ourselves with everything that we have,” Saag said.

ADPH offers answers to common questions at alabamapublichealth. gov/covid19vaccine/myths. html#credible.