In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many meat processing and food production facilities have temporarily closed or reduced operations, raising concerns about shortages and the safety of our nation’s food supply. West Virginia University Extension Service Livestock Specialist Kevin Shaffer provides some insight about West Virginia’s beef supply and what we can do to help producers and fellow consumers.
Geoffrey Bradford practices at the West Virginia University Eye Institute. He also directs the residency program in the School of Medicine’s Department Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and he is the department’s vice-chair of education. He has tips for keeping SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—out of our eyes. And none of them involve handcuffs or a doggie cone.
Students in Noah Trudeau’s class at West Virginia University are learning principles of economics through video games, a method Trudeau, a doctoral student in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics developed as the COVID-19 pandemic was escalating. He implemented the approach just before WVU students were sent home for the remainder of the semester and they now use the games to question pandemic-related events, including why some products are leaving store shelves quicker than others.
A constitutional quagmire of issues, stretching from the exercise of religion to labor law, have arisen in the United States amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
West Virginia University’s Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Sciences Town Hall Series has been moved online and expanded into an online five-week series.
Ednilson Bernardes, chair of the Global Supply Chain Management program within West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics, says companies like Smithfield and Tyson Foods closing their meat-producing plants is unlikely to lead to a food shortage. Instead, he says, the bigger threat is a shortage in the workforce.
As farmers markets across West Virginia open for the season, West Virginia University Extension Service Agribusiness Economics Specialist Dee Singh-Knights has provided a few recommendations to help market managers and vendors safely sell their products to customers and allow communities to continue supporting local farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
History has a way of reminding us that we are not the first generation to experience either hardship or the spread of disease. John Cuthbert, curator and director of the West Virginia Regional History Center and Special Collections at West Virginia University Libraries, said the parallels between WVU’s response to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and COVID-19 are as interesting as they are telling.
Being resilient and positive is difficult during a crisis. We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we can control how we respond to them. Cheryl Kaczor, West Virginia University Extension Service Family and Community Development Agent in Marshall County, offers sound advice on coping with adversity and finding silver linings to help you navigate challenging times.
Doctors and other health care providers could get some help from artificial intelligence, which could expedite decisions regarding patient care and minimize exposure, saving personal protective equipment, according to Dr. Partho Sengupta, Abnash C. Jain chair and chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of Cardiovascular Imaging at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.