Virginia Martin

Q&A With UAB Med School Dean Selwyn Vickers: Pandemic “Significantly” Shutting Down Clinical Trial Enterprise

Dr. Selwyn Vickers, UAB senior vice-president and dean of the School of Medicine, is a busy person as he deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. But BirminghamWatch caught a few minutes with him Thursday to ask a quick series of questions. He said precautions being taken to stem the spread of COVID-19 have virtually shut down many research projects. The hospital is lower than usual on some supplies, but the stock is generally holding its own. And the pandemic is teaching administrators lessons that could be useful with operations going forward. Read more.

Contributors in the U.S. Senate Race

Following are lists of contributors of $5,000 and up to U.S. Senate candidates. Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, faced no opposition from within his party and will be on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Jeff Sessions and Tommy Tuberville are candidates for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat, and the winner of their July 14 GOP primary runoff will face Jones in the fall election. Read more.

Alabama’s COVID-19 Cases, Reported Deaths Double in the Past Eight Days

The number of people in Alabama who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, as well as those who are reported to have died, have roughly doubled in eight days’ time, according to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health. As of Thursday afternoon, the number of reported deaths stood at 133, compared to 64 on April 7. The number of those tested positive rose to 4,345 Thursday; the total was 2,107 eight days prior. Read more.

COVID-19: The past is the past, but we still need to know everything about it.

Never more than Monday have I worried that Donald Trump spends too much time trying to defend his past actions and not enough on forging a plan to eradicate the coronavirus and return the country to normal. Read more.

UAB’s Pastoral Care Team Counsels Health Care Workers Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Hospital chaplains usually show comfort to patients or their families, but at UAB that has changed. During the coronavirus pandemic, the pastoral care team spends a lot of time counseling health care workers who are on the front lines. Read more.

Tuberville, Sessions Fundraising Neck-and-Neck for Senate Seat

Tommy Tuberville and Jeff Sessions have been running almost dollar-for-dollar in recent weeks as they raise cash for their campaigns for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate, according to reports they filed this week with the Federal Elections Commission. Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach, narrowly led a field of seven candidates in the GOP primary on March 3. He will meet Sessions, who held the Senate seat for almost two decades until he resigned in early 2017 to become President Donald Trump’s first attorney general, in a runoff on July 14. Read more.

See the lists of contributors in the U.S. Senate race.

COVID-19 Cases in Alabama Top 4,000

UPDATED --- Alabama’s cases of COVID-19 rose to 4,075 Tuesday and the number of people who have been hospitalized since the pandemic began reached 525. Reported deaths in the state are up to 118. The Alabama Department of Public Health has confirmed 75 of those deaths and is investigating the remainder of the cases, in which people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 died. Read more.

Birmingham to Launch Ride Service for COVID-19 Patients

The city of Birmingham expects to launch a service this week to safely transport people to coronavirus testing sites. It’s an initiative through Birmingham Strong, a public-private civic coalition spearheaded by the city. Read more.

Birmingham Commits Another $1 Million to Temporary Worker Program

City Council voted to allocate more funds to the city’s fight against COVID-19. The city’s coronavirus fund was given an additional $1 million for what Mayor Randall Woodfin called “phase two” of the city’s coronavirus response, which involves a temporary “Birmingham Strong Service Corps” worker program focusing on coronavirus testing, access to testing and food insecurity resulting from the pandemic. Read more.

COVID-19 Deaths Reported in Alabama Top 100 as Cases Rise to 3,803

The number of cases in Alabama from the novel coronavirus rose to 3,803 Monday night, with 103 reported deaths, 62 of those confirmed through follow-up tests, according to the state Department of Public Health. Since March 13, 457 people have been hospitalized with the disease. Statewide, 28,486 people have been tested for the coronavirus. Every county now has confirmed cases. Read more.