My six-year-old triplets share a room and they just love to pile into the same bed at night. You can imagine that when a stomach bug sneaks in, it levels all three at once—and turns two working parents into round-the-clock nurses and laundry staff.
Now imagine what something like the flu, RSV or COVID-19 could do to a household with young children. Yikes!
Vaccines spare my family that chaos, giving us the health, time and paychecks we can’t afford to lose.
August is National Immunization Awareness Month, and its 2025 message lands just as Alabama braces for another season of flu, COVID-19 and RSV. Vaccines remain our best defense for keeping classrooms open, hospital beds available and Friday-night lights burning.
Yet too many Alabamians still skip their shots. By late April only 38 percent of residents had rolled up a sleeve for flu—well behind the national 46.7 percent. Childhood coverage is slipping, too: medical or religious exemptions now top two percent, and another four percent of students lack an up-to-date certificate of immunization. Those gaps erode the “herd immunity” that protects newborns, cancer patients and others who can’t be vaccinated.
The good news? Science keeps adding tools to the playbook:
- Updated COVID-19 vaccine: reformulated each season to outflank new variants.
- Annual flu shot: still the simplest way to cut hospital stays roughly in half.
- RSV protection: a first-ever vaccine for adults 60 and older, preventive antibodies for newborns and a maternal vaccine that passes immunity to babies before birth.
All three can be given in one visit, usually at no cost under federal rules and private-insurance coverage. If you’re unsure which shot you need, ask your doctor or county health department.
Manufacturers are already gearing up for the fight, too. They’ve already begin shipping this season’s flu vaccines weeks ahead of schedule after last year’s high-severity outbreak – the deadliest for children since 2004 and the worst for hospitalizations since 2010-2011.
New options like needle-free nasal spray and expanded age ranges of high-dose formulas make it easier than ever to find the right shot for your needs.
Misinformation remains our toughest rival. Vaccines are the most closely monitored medical products in history; side effects are generally mild and fleeting, while the diseases they prevent can kill. If you have questions, bring them to a live physician, not to a chatbot or some random comment thread.
Public health is a team sport. When you vaccinate, you protect your grandmother with asthma, the coworker in chemotherapy and the preemie next door who is still too small for shots. Alabama physicians are doing our part—counseling patients, hosting clinics and urging insurers and lawmakers to keep distribution simple and affordable. We need you on the field with us.
Check your record, book early and “stack your shots” – get all your recommended shots in one visit. Alabama’s next chapter can be one of resilience and shared progress. Let’s write it together—one safe, simple vaccination at a time.
