One year of COVID-19 vaccines administered to Alabamians

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - It has been a year now since people started rolling up their sleeves to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Over the past twelve months, more than 5 million doses have been given out to Alabamians.

ADPH District Medical Officer, Dr. Wes Stubblefield says it is remarkable science has been able to take something they knew nothing about, create a vaccine, and continually expand the vaccine to different age groups in this amount of time.

Although many hoped the vaccine would be the beginning of the end, Dr. Stubblefield says the hope is that scientists and doctors can take the science they are learning now and continue to take it to the next level.

This past year has also thrown variants at us that we have had to adapt to, the latest being Omicron.

Dr. Stubblefield says there has not been an official case of Omicron detected in Alabama.

”All of us expect the new variant will be in the state… It probably already is in the state. We will verify it over the next few weeks. We do not know what will happen yet. This new variant seems to be very highly, easily transmitted from one person to another. It could be that people will get sick although it looks like it appears from overseas data that the people who get this are not severely ill.” said Dr. Stubblefield.

Dr. Stubblefield says they do not know what is going to happen next. But, the COVID pill is still being studied, monoclonal antibody treatments continue, and booster shots are here. However, doctors are very concerned about a surge over the holiday season.

You can view the ADPH Vaccine Distribution Dashboard here.

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