Will incentives help boost COVID-19 vaccines in Alabama?
Updated 1:11 PM;
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In the race to vaccinate people in Alabama, some groups haven’t kept pace.
Young white men in rural areas, including Alabama, have been slow to line up for shots. Fisher Anderson, 17, of Jacksonville, had no plans to get vaccinated.
“I didn’t really want to get it because I didn’t need it,” Anderson said.
But on Saturday, May 15, he pulled into the garages at Talladega Superspeedway to get his first shot after taking two laps around the track. Anderson and his father participated in an event aimed in part at people like them. The Race to End COVID, a partnership between the Alabama Department of Public Health, the Emergency Management Agency and Talladega Superspeedway, is offering access to the track in exchange for free COVID vaccines or tests from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Alabama continues to rapidly decline, as the state continues to trail behind every U.S. state but one in total vaccinations.
Though 14 counties have reached vaccination rates of at least 40 percent, with the vulnerable Black Belt counties consistently reporting the state s highest rates, just 26% of Alabama’s total population is fully vaccinated, outranking only Mississippi in total vaccination coverage.
ADPH reported 100,699 doses administered between May 4 and May 10, a 16% decrease from the week prior and a 37% decrease from two weeks prior.
On May 11, the state reported just 13,726 doses were administered, a marked decrease from consistent daily totals of 30,000-plus doses through March and mid-April, as additional vaccine product began spreading through Alabama and as an increasing number of people were eligible to get the vaccine.
CMT Music Awards 2021: Nominees include Sam Hunt, Little Big Town
Updated 9:54 PM;
Today 9:54 PM
Little Big Town performed at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on March 7, 2020. The country-pop group is nominated for three CMT Music Awards in 2021.(Photo by Robb Cohen/Invision/AP)
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Nominees for the 2021 CMT Music Awards were announced on Thursday, and three acts with Alabama ties were on the list. Here’s the breakdown:
Sam Hunt, a country-pop singer-songwriter with ties to Birmingham and Montevallo, is nominated for Video of the Year for “Breaking Up Was Easy in the 90′s.” The song is a track from his 2020 album, “Southside.”
This Viewpoint discusses ways clinicians can provide emotional and psychological support to surrogate decision makers to provide individualized support, lessen