As most attention in the United States focuses on public health and the economy, entomologists have their eyes on the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) recently discovered in the state of Washington. Brian Lovett, entomologist and post-doctoral fellow in the West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, describes the species, why its arrival is concerning and how it became known as the “murder hornet.”
In recent weeks, the U.S. has seen closures among a number of its poultry processing facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving producers without a market for their products and raising consumer concerns over an impending shortage. Though the poultry processing facilities in the Eastern Panhandle haven’t yet seen the same outbreaks or closures, West Virginia University Extension Service experts Joe Moritz and Alexandria Smith weigh in on the current struggles West Virginia poultry producers are facing as a result of COVID-19.
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.