Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
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Feb. 3
The Dothan Eagle on the coronavirus vaccine rollout:
As is human nature, sarcastic criticism of Alabama’s mid-December rollout of the coronavirus vaccine began before it had a chance to gain momentum. Perhaps the most pointed was the suggestion that the distribution be handled by a popular fast food chain.
“If Chick-fil-A were handling the vaccines, they’d be finished already,” was a common quip.
In that sarcasm was a good idea, and when a vaccine distribution site in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, turned into a traffic nightmare, the town’s mayor called in an expert - the manager of Chick-fil-A.
Anyone who’s experienced a Chick-fil-A drive-thru can attest to its efficiency, and the fast-food manager quickly identified the problems and helped streamline the process.
That’s a good thing to keep in mind as communities across the nation work to improve the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.
In Dothan, drive-thru vaccine initiatives have worked well at Southeast Health and at the Houston County Farm Center, where Dothan Pediatrics is holding drive-thru vaccinations as supplies are available.
Alabama seems to have improved its process, having launched a new state Department of Public Health portal for residents to visit online to check eligibility and schedule vaccine appointments, and beginning Feb. 8, the state will launch its Phase 1c, making eligible residents 65 and older, and others meeting criteria.
However, not everyone is eager to take the vaccine; a recent survey found that while 33% of Americans looked forward to being inoculated as soon as possible, only 59% said they would do so within a year.
The challenge is making the vaccine available in adequate quantities for those who want it, and then launching information campaigns to convince skeptics that the vaccine is safe and effective.
Online: https://dothaneagle.com/
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Feb. 2
The Cullman Times on the nursing program at Wallace State Community College:
During a global pandemic, access to medical care is paramount. Cullman County is fortunate to have a regional medical center located here along with the outstanding nursing program at Wallace State Community College that has been supplying medical facilities with much-needed staff.
Long-term care facilities in Cullman have benefited from the Medical Assistance Certification (MAC) which allows Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) to distribute medication to patients. This frees up the nursing staff to handle other responsibilities.
“With everything going on with the pandemic, the need for nurses to have that extra help is so important,” said Jamie Blackmon, director of Wallace State’s Center for Career and Workforce Development. “When CNAs get this extra certification where they can distribute medications, it alleviates some things that nurses have to do, and helps CNAs get a raise.”
This certification is just the latest development in the outstanding nursing program offered at WSCC. Proof of the nursing program’s success is that last November it was named a Center of Excellence by the National League for Nursing (NLN). The WSCC nursing program was the first in the state to achieve this in 2016, and the first to repeat it four years later.
Wallace State was one of only 17 programs across the nation to receive this designation for the years 2020-2025. They include nursing programs across the country and the academic spectrum of higher education in nursing as well as leading teaching hospitals and clinical sites.
With more health science programs than any community college in Alabama, Wallace is supplying local and regional medical facilities with the trained staff needed to handle a global pandemic.
We appreciate all the graduates and the college that designs programs to fulfill the needs of the community.
Online: https://www.cullmantimes.com/
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Jan. 27
The Decatur Daily on tornado preparation:
The deadly tornado that swept through Fultondale, just north of Birmingham, on Monday night reminds us that it’s always tornado season in Alabama.
The distinction between the official tornado season and the rest of the year is more a matter of degree than kind. Tornadoes are always possible; it’s only their likelihood that changes.
Monday’s tornado killed a teenager who had taken shelter in a basement along with the rest of his family.
“They were doing what they were supposed to be doing,’’ said Fultondale Police Chief D.P. Smith.
Yet sometimes sufficient warning and a place to escape the elements aren’t enough.
That is why it should concern us all that the center of tornado activity in the United States has been steadily creeping eastward from Texas and the prairies of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska - known as “Tornado Alley” - toward Alabama and the rest of the Southeast. It’s not as if we were lacking in tornado activity before, as those who lived through the 1974 Super Outbreak can attest.
A 2016 study published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology found that the center of the nation’s tornado activity shifted between 1954 and 1983 from east Texas and Oklahoma to north Alabama and Tennessee.
“Deaths from tornadoes in the southeastern U.S. are disproportionately common compared to elsewhere in the country,” according to storm researchers at Purdue University. “Researchers believe this might be due to storms happening before the peak of tornado season, when they typically move more quickly. Other explanations could include bad storm visibility, inadequate shelter and higher population density in Southern states.”
Purdue researchers have studied north Alabama tornadoes in particular, along with researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the University of Oklahoma.
Subsequent studies have found the same eastward shift in peak tornado activity.
“Regions in the Southeast and Midwest are closing the gap (with Texas and Oklahoma) when it comes to the number of tornado reports,” said Northern Illinois University meteorologist Victor Gensini, who led a study published in 2018.
No matter whether you call it “global warming” or “climate change,” some researchers believe it is responsible for the shift in tornado activity that has made Alabama an even bigger target for deadly storms. The jury is still out on that question, but it is the mere possibility that global warming has resulted in a new tornado alley that has motivated researchers to undertake some of these studies in the first place.
Given the real threat of severe storms to lives and property in north Alabama, it’s at least comforting to now have an administration in Washington that doesn’t dismiss global warming as a “hoax.”
Online: https://www.decaturdaily.com/
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