3 Clear Glass Bottles On Table — COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine granted federal approval. Photo via Braňo for Unsplash.

On August 23rd, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially approved the first vaccine for COVID-19. Previously known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, the newly-approved vaccine will be marketed as Comirnaty, and carries the same endorsements and has the same certifications as the other vaccines we rely on, such as the Measles or Polio vaccines.

Keep reading to learn more about what this approval means for you & how you can get vaccinated in Alabama.

The scary truth about COVID-19

Covid Will Make You Sick, Not The Vaccine. Photo Via Uab Medicine — COVID will make you sick, not the vaccine. Photo via UAB Medicine

COVID-19 is not going away. In fact, in Alabama, healthcare workers are still entrenched. According to Alabama Public Health’s COVID-19 Dashboard, every single county in Alabama has a high rate of COVID-19 transmission, except for Sumter County, which has a moderate transmission rate. A high transmission rate is defined as 100 or more new cases per 100,000 people over the course of 7 days, with an overall positivity rate of 10% or more. To reiterate this is almost every county in Alabama.

FOX 10 reported Friday that Mobile was out of ambulances. They are all in constant transport of COVID-19 patients.

On August 13, Kay Ivey issued a State of Emergency because of COVID-19 surges, citing that 95% of ICU beds were unavailable, the lowest availability since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Associated Press reported Friday that a federal team of healthcare workers were dispatched to a Foley hospital, which was overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

This is the unfortunate and life-threatening truth of COVID-19, especially with the Delta variant. Luckily, we are no longer in March 2020, and we now have the tools we need to defeat the virus.

Vaccination: the way out

Man Receives Covid-19 Vaccination — Go get your vaccine! Photo via CVS’s Facebook

Viruses are, unfortunately, incurable. Viruses are non-living beings that rely on a host cell to reproduce, killing the cell in the process. You either wait out the infection or pass from it.

There are very few antivirals on the market, most with low-levels of efficacy like Tamiflu. The only option for defeating a virus like COVID-19 is widespread and effective vaccination, which, without federal approval, has felt like a roll of the dice to many Americans.

However, the Pfizer vaccine was officially given the green-light as an effective and safe preventative for COVID-19. This approval paves the way for local governments and businesses to create vaccine mandates, like we’ve already seen in the Pentagon and New York City. While the choice to get vaccinated is a personal one, officials hope approval will sway the opinions of many apprehensive Americans.

How to get vaccinated in Alabama

Cvs Vaccine Check-In — CVS Vaccine check-in counter. Photo by Liv George for The Bama Buzz.

If FDA approval was what you were waiting on (which we understand!), here’s how you can find a vaccine near you.

This map shows all federal COVID-19 vaccine clinics in the State of Alabama.

Grocery stores and pharmacies like Costco, CVS, Sam’s/Walmart, and Walgreens now offer vaccinations in their stores, most requiring appointments, but some without an appointment necessary.

This website was set up by the state of Alabama to aid Alabamians in becoming informed about the vaccine and locating a vaccination distribution center near them.

The truth is, these FDA-approved vaccines are everywhere, waiting on you to take them.

Let’s all do our part and get vaccinated, Alabama! In the meantime, be sure to mask up and take all preventative measures against COVID-19, so we can all return to normalcy as soon as possible.