Researchers at West Virginia University’s vaccine development center are developing a new way to get vaccinated against COVID-19, creating a nasal mist vaccine as an alternative to the traditional, needle-based vaccine.
WVU Vaccine Development Center Director Heath Damron says the vaccine would be inhaled through the nose, giving the body’s airways a more direct immune response. Nasal vaccines are currently used in the United States to fight other infectious diseases like the flu, creating a precedent for a similar vaccine for COVID-19.
“A nasal vaccine installs immunity potentially right where it counts, which is where the virus or pathogen or bacteria would arrive,” Damron said.
Both types of vaccines accomplish the same goal, but a study his team ran showed taking both vaccines worked better than taking only one type separately. A nasal vaccine could also potentially work better with children or pets.
Damron’s team has been working with COVID-19 for over a year, and are submitting grants to continue their work for five years or more.
“Even if we do fully, eventually win, and we don’t have a COVID world anymore, what we learn about COVID immunology and vaccinology will be important to thwarting future problems as well,” said Damron. “If the pandemic were over tomorrow, I think we’d still be working on these things, because we don’t want to see this ever happen again.”
The team is currently researching how its vaccine works against new COVID-19 strains, including the Delta variant.
During the onset of COVID-19, countless organizations and venues had no choice but to shut their doors, forcing many institutions, including those found in artistic communities across West Virginia, to adjust.
The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown is one institution in the midst of recovery. Operating in Shepherdstown, a small town with a population of fewer than 2,000 people, visitors can easily see the community’s vibrant, artistic roots.
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Peggy McKowen, the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) associate producing director.
Like other artistic institutions around the state, CATF was forced to put development of its yearly rotation of plays on hold in 2020, instead opting to look for other ways to entertain audiences in the meantime. Peggy McKowen, the theater festival’s associate producing director, worked with the staff to find new alternatives.
“Although we could not produce a season last year, we were able to continue developing the plays with the design teams, and the directors, and the playwrights,” McKowen said.
The festival’s staff got inventive with how they were able to make theater safe for audiences. The organization was able to do what McKowen calls a “deep dive” on their previously scheduled plays for 2020, while delaying the live performances until after the pandemic. Melissa Crespo, director of the festival’s performance of Sheepdog, written by Kevin Artigue, was one of the group of creatives making it happen.
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Melissa Crespo, director of the festival’s performance of Sheepdog.
“The more we can keep artists employed and get audiences watching stories again and enjoying art in different ways, the better,” Crespo said. “I’m optimistic and grateful to still be working in whatever capacity that is.”
In the meantime, festival staff uploaded a YouTube series called “The Making Of,” detailing the processes that go into their plays. They also got to work creating audio drama adaptations for both Sheepdog and The House of the Negro Insane by Terence Anthony, while also continuing to work on the stage performances. It was a completely new experience for those involved, including for William Oliver Watkins, who plays the lead role of Attius in The House of the Negro Insane.
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Actor William Oliver Watkins. He plays the lead role of Attius in The House of the Negro Insane.
“We were trying to — and I hope we succeeded — allow the listener to submerge him or herself and be almost a silent member of the cast in a way that we couldn’t even really accomplish in the theater,” Watkins said.
Watkins has been involved with multiple productions with CATF in the past, and thinks that new social norms and technologies that grew in popularity during COVID could affect how theater is produced in the future.
“I think live theater is always going to be there, no amount of Zooming can ever make up for being in a space with people and feeling that kind of energy. But the productions around it, I think, are gonna continue to take advantage of this remote technology because it does allow you to be in four places at once,” Watkins said.
CATF’s work during the pandemic will pay off this July, as they put on four weekly street parties each Friday starting July 9th. Each party will be completely outdoors in downtown Shepherdstown, with the first two parties featuring local musicians, poets, and artists from the Eastern Panhandle along with performances of selected scenes from theater festival plays .
Beginning July 23 and continuing July 30th, these events will feature listening parties for the audio drama productions of The House of the Negro Insane and Sheepdog, with headphones available to party-goers as these editions debut to the public. McKowen says these parties are the perfect way to revitalize the Shepherdstown community in the wake of COVID-19.
“We thought the best thing to do would be downtown, on the street, in the middle of the community, where everybody can see us, everybody can be part of it,” McKowen said.
The return of the CATF is important economically, It attracts tourists from 39 states, and an economic impact study estimated the festival brings in $5.8 million to Shepherdstown. But the festival is also important to the artistic heart of the community.
“I think CATF is incredibly special because it is one of the few cradles for new work within the US — and who knew it was in West Virginia?” Crespo said. “And I know from experience there are audience members that come every year, and it’s wonderful to see that loyalty. People know when you go to CATF, you’re not going to see your average play.”
As more West Virginians get vaccinated and COVID restrictions begin to relax, McKowen thinks local communities around the state are regaining an important part of what makes those communities thrive: their artistic centers.
“I truly believe that theater is the artistic medium of a community. I truly believe what we put on stage should reflect what is happening to the people in our world today, in our very communities,” McKowen said. “We can look at things, we can talk about things that otherwise might seem uncomfortable, and we can have a good conversation about that, and we can share with each other in a way that just makes our community stronger.”
A large environmental project in Jefferson County is underway in Jefferson County, aimed at ensuring the safe future of area water supplies.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition has planted nearly 900 trees and shrubs to protect the drinking water in the Harpers Ferry community.
The area, known as a riparian buffer, was planted along the Elk’s Run Watershed, which provides residents of the Jefferson County towns of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar with clean drinking water. It is also the only stream in the county that provides water to a municipality and drinking water to thousands of Harpers Ferry residents and tourists.
A riparian buffer is a natural strip of vegetation next to a stream or a creek that protects it from pollution. Not only does this help the environment, but it also improves the community surrounding it.
“We can’t have a thriving economy without clean water. Our businesses need it — we can’t have a thriving recreational economy,” said Tanner Haid, Eastern Panhandle field coordinator of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “This means everything to the people that live and work in this community.”
The organization, dedicated to protecting rivers and streams statewide, teamed up with local business owners and the Harpers Ferry Water Commission for this project as a public-private partnership. One local business owner, James Remuzzi of Shepherdstown-based Sustainable Solutions, helped provide the resources needed for the project. He thinks that the buffer brings ecological, economical and social benefit.
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
James Remuzzi, owner of Sustainable Solutions
“These types of projects help generate what we call green-collar jobs, so this idea that doing things like tree plantings, doing watershed improvement projects, actually generates jobs,” Remuzzi said.
Others who helped get the project off the ground include Barbara Humes, a member of the Harpers Ferry Water Commission, and Susannah Buckles, landowner of the Gap View Farm, which contains the headwaters of Elk’s Run.
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Barbara Humes, member of the Harpers Ferry Water Commission (left), and Susannah Buckles, owner of Gap View Farm (right).
“I think that this project serves as a great example of what could be done with other agricultural properties in the county,” Humes said. “I also think that it could serve as a way for the county ordinances to be looked at and perhaps revised in such a way that when a developer comes into a watershed area, that they could be more cognizant of how to protect open spaces in our zone of critical concern.”
Buckles is using her property to do just that. She thinks it is her responsibility as the landowner to give back to the planet and her community.
“As a landowner, we are stewards of the land, and we try to do the best we possibly can for our fellow living beings and the earth at large,” Buckles said. “I feel a great responsibility for that at this point in my life.”
Though this forest buffer has been finished, Buckles understands the importance of future projects around the state in order to better protect the state’s drinking water, as well as the land surrounding it.
“I think if more people understood the direct impact that these kinds of actions have in a positive way on our environment and our essential needs for water and air, I think that will go a long way towards having more of these projects available,” Buckles said.
Some Ohio County residents are upset after the Wheeling-Ohio Board of Education voted to reduce funding for the county’s public library by one-third.
The decision to reallocate funding for the library was handed down during a board meeting last month. It voted to reduce funding from 3 cents to 2 cents per $100 of the institution’s assessed property value, according to the Wheeling Intelligencer. The board plans to use the money that would have gone to the library to fund property improvements within the county.
Supporters and staff members of the library system think this decision is ill-advised. Library President Dottie Thomas says it would mean a cut in the services and programs the library currently provides. She is concerned about upkeep on the building itself.
“It allows no room to maintain the building at all, or any capital improvements, or repairs, or all of that, which, of course, is very expensive,” said Thomas.
Those opposed to the decision also include notable names like West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, who decried the Board’s decision as “shameful,” and former President of West Liberty University Clyde Campbell.
The Wheeling Intelligencer reports that the Ohio County Board of Education will re-evaluate its financial standing next year to decide funding levels for the library. Thomas says that without any state law requiring the funding of libraries locally, it would be difficult to encourage future funding.
“West Virginia made two mistakes,” said Thomas. “One: It never put in place any type of requirement for local government funding of libraries in the state code. And two, it has a very ineffective way of encouraging that funding. Some states do a much better job with local library funding.”
Though the defunding of the Ohio Valley Public Library is worrisome to Thomas, she thinks the institutions have a place in local communities all around the state.
“Do I believe public libraries are still relevant?” Thomas asked. “Absolutely. They provide the internet, of course, and all these services to all people, regardless of their economic status. It’s the taxpayers providing their community with a service that allows the local citizens to educate themselves and be well-informed.”
