Crimson Corner: With Full Capacity Still Slated for Bryant-Denny Stadium, COVID-19 Looms Large

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Way back in May, I wrote an edition of Crimson Corner explaining that Bryant-Denny Stadium should not require vaccinations for fans to enter, and that the stadium should return to full capacity as a sign of the world returning to normalcy.

Unfortunately for myself and for the rest of the citizens of the state of Alabama, the situation has now changed.

Back in May, the COVID-19 vaccine was readily available for the general public (as it still is today), and it was beginning to look like the pandemic was quickly coming to an end. Bars and restaurants had not only reopened, but mask mandates and other coronavirus protocols were beginning to fall left and right.

Unfortunately, the delta variant and the failure of the people of Alabama to get vaccinated despite widespread availability has caused the dreaded delta variant to surge. The pandemic was something that could have been stopped, but nope. Here we are again.

According to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, between June and July, 185,000 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across the country. Of those 185,000 people, 98.3 percent of them were unvaccinated.

Last weekend, my wife and I were married down in Baldwin County, an Alabama county that has routinely been one of the hardest-hit counties throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Both my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are healthcare workers and have seen the pandemic at its worst.

In their hospital's ICU, COVID-19 cases are surging — so much so that people with heart attacks and other death-causing ailments are forced to have less-than-stellar accommodations due to lack of beds. Ambulances are often unavailable due to them having to be used as a place for a patient to remain since there is no room at the hospital.

Remaining unvaccinated affects more than just yourself, it also impacts those that are suffering from issues and ailments completely separate from the virus.

An argument that I have seen brought up time and time again by the unvaccinated is 'Well, if the vaccine doesn't prevent me from getting the virus and doesn't prevent the spread, then why should I get it?' That logic is incredibly faulty. Sure, it might not completely stop you from getting the virus due to the delta variant (which was allowed to spread thanks to the unvaccinated), but the numbers don't lie in terms of how effective it is at nullifying the virus.

Like the numbers that I brought up earlier, 59,000 of the 60,000 June hospitalizations were among unvaccinated individuals. In July, 123,000 of 125,000 hospitalizations were unvaccinated. Those are not simply cases, people. Those are hospitalizations. The worst of the worst scenario for anyone that gets COVID-19.

Sure, the vaccine might not completely prevent you from getting the virus. But it will help prevent it. It might not keep from being hospitalized, but only a measly 1.7 percent of those hospitalized were vaccinated. I like those odds much better than those of the unvaccinated.

This past week, LSU announced that all fans age 12 and older will be required to either show proof of vaccination in order to enter Tiger Stadium or have tested negative of the virus. We've already seen those kind of announcements at some other stadiums at both the college and NFL level, but LSU's was the first in the SEC.

Unfortunately for the University of Alabama, making that kind of announcement isn't as easy.

Earlier this year, Alabama governor Kay Ivey announced that requiring proof of vaccination (dubbed 'vaccine passports') in order to enter public buildings is against the law in the state. With the university being a public institution, that means that athletic director Greg Byrne and his staff can't simply deem vaccines a requirement for entry. If they were to do so, it would be breaking the law.

“As you can imagine we have state laws that we have to adhere to and our COVID protocols are one of them and we will obviously be following the state laws of Alabama,” Byrne said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “At the same time, too, our approach — two things — from the start of COVID, our whole approach as a department was 1) we were going to respect the virus, 2) we respect one another and 3) do everything we could to move forward safely. We thought that was the right thing for our student-athletes, for the athletic department, for our university, our community, and that’s what we did.

"And I’m proud of how we handled that. It wasn’t perfect — there isn’t a perfect organization out there as far as COVID and these uncharted waters."

There's no doubt that Byrne and his staff have done an outstanding job directing the Crimson Tide throughout the pandemic. However, as BamaCentral editor Christopher Walsh wrote, Byrne is now stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Back in May, the last thing I wanted to see was required vaccinations in order to watch football inside Bryant-Denny. However, circumstances have changed. While it's time to act and do something about it, the choice has been removed from Byrne's and UA's hands. Instead, it is now up to you.

Getting the vaccine is a personal choice. That much is certain. But in choosing not to do so, the unvaccinated are forcing the prolonging of the pandemic. Are you tired of wearing a mask? Good. Get the vaccine. Are you tired of the ongoing threat of a return to lockdowns? Good. Get the vaccine. Do you want to see all sports return to full normalcy? Good. Get the vaccine.

Until then, if you are unvaccinated and continue to refuse to do so, stop complaining about having to wear masks and how the pandemic has gone on longer than it was expected to. The unvaccinated are the ones contributing to those problems. It's pretty hypocritical to blame others when they themselves are part of the problem.

Joey Blackwell's Crimson Corner column appears weekly on BamaCentral.com.