COVID-19 Vaccine Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Health Care Leaders Look Back On Four Years Of COVID-19

On March 17, 2020, West Virginia became the last state in the U.S. to test positive for COVID-19.

Time passes differently from each person’s perspective. The COVID-19 pandemic may seem like decades ago to some, and just like yesterday to others. In actuality, it has been four years since the world as we knew it came to a grinding halt.

The current Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health, Dr. Sherri Young, was working as the health officer and executive director for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department when the virus arrived in the state.

“We were the 50th state to have, or announce, our first case,” Young said. “And so it seems like from those waiting points, things accelerated very quickly to having more and more cases, and kind of evolving from all the responses that we had to do.”

Dr. Clay Marsh was eventually appointed by Gov. Jim Justice as West Virginia’s COVID-19 czar, the person who coordinated the federal, state and local agencies, health officials, researchers and other agencies aiding in the state’s response to the virus.

However, at the beginning of the pandemic, Marsh was making decisions for West Virginia University (WVU), as its executive dean for health sciences. He said he watched news reports of how the virus was spreading around the world and made decisions based on the most up-to-date information.

“Seeing that coming toward us in the U.S., we decided, you know, right before spring break, that instead of bringing the students back after spring break, we would actually close the university to classes, of course, taking care of the students that were at the university, international students, people, who didn’t have other places to go,” Marsh said. “But otherwise, then we took a big step and went online after that.”

Marsh said West Virginia’s rural demographics protected it from the virus for so long, with no large urban areas for COVID-19 to spread.

“We had the benefit of waiting until COVID came through the rest of the world and part of the rest of the country, and the urban centers to be able to respond,” Marsh said. “And so I think that was a tremendous advantage for us.”

Young said the first year of the pandemic was spent making hard decisions to limit the spread of COVID-19 and casualties from it.

“We knew that there was very limited testing, we were using repurposed PCR testing that we changed the calibration for what we’d use for a flu test or other types of coronaviruses that we had to develop testing,” Young said. “So I remember sitting at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department with 10 swabs, knowing that there were more people exposed in one patient than I could possibly test at that time.”

Young said one of the defining steps in mitigating the risk was the development of testing and distribution.

“One of the things that Gov. Justice did that was so great for us at the local health level, was making that testing available to everyone, once we had that capability,” Young said.

Marsh said a big milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic was understanding how it was communicated.

“I think that going from not understanding how COVID was transmitted, to understanding that COVID was really transmitted by respiratory exchange, and breathing, exchange, cough and exchange, sneezing exchange, and it was airborne, is really, really a huge advantage,” Marsh said.

Of course, both Young and Marsh agree, the invention of the COVID-19 vaccine was a turning point in fighting the virus.

“The next big evolution within the COVID pandemic, when we finally got that vaccine, that was life-altering, life-changing, I will forever remember the minute that I got to get the first dose from the health department,” Young said.

Marsh said not only was the invention of the vaccine a turning point, but a revolutionary moment in medicine.

“Coming up with the new vaccines, particularly the messenger RNA vaccines, were really a turning point in the pandemic and allowed us to protect the most vulnerable first, the aged, the older you are, the more likely COVID will have severe consequences, people that are immunocompromised, and then of course, eventually, you know, people who are first responders who are medical caregivers, and then everyone,” Marsh said.

Young agreed, remembering how exciting it was for the elderly to be allowed to visit with their loved ones again, without fear or worry.

“For some of the older adults, especially those 65 and older, and one of the most gratifying things getting to stand in those clinics, or even doing house calls, which we had done from the Kanawha-Charleston perspective, with the gratitude and being able to be open to being back around folks,” Young said. “So at the initiation of the vaccine, the uptake was good, and the response was good.”

Marsh said the world is not done with COVID-19, as it continues to mutate and with some patients still suffering from Long COVID.

“We still are not done with COVID, particularly related to the impact of Long COVID, the extended problems that people can suffer including brain fog and a variety of other problems,” Marsh said. “And we’re learning more and more about Long COVID. But that’s certainly still something that is impacting people in the U.S. and across the globe every day.”

Young encouraged people to speak with their physicians about what vaccination is appropriate.

“Well, fortunately, people, I think, were very well attuned at the beginning, but we don’t talk about COVID a lot,” Young said. “I think where we need to have that conversation is just realizing that it is something that we have to live with. It’s now endemic in our society, we will forever be dealing with it just like we deal with the flu, just like we deal with RSV and other diseases.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans 65 and older should receive an additional dose of the latest COVID-19 vaccine this spring.

According to West Virginia’s Pan Respiratory Dashboard, just 36 percent of West Virginians over the age of 61 are up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccines. The dashboard shows that of the more than 100 West Virginians who died from COVID-19 in the past year, the average age was 73.

“As the data consistently shows, those who are older and immunocompromised are the most vulnerable to the severe effects of COVID-19,” said Young in a press release. “It is for this reason we encourage those individuals to strongly consider getting an additional dose.”

Under current recommendations, those 65 and older can receive an additional dose of the vaccine at least four months after the previous shot. The updated vaccine targets both the original strain of the virus and newer variants, offering broader protection.

To find updated COVID-19 information and the nearest vaccination location, visit COVID-19 Vaccine.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

Us & Them: Diminished Trust In Science

Science and research can lead to important breakthroughs, but in a divided America, not everyone trusts the results. In this Us & Them, host Trey Kay speaks with three expert guests before an audience full of curious people at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and asks: How shaken is our confidence in scientists and the scientific process?

Polls and surveys report our confidence is eroding and that we’ve lost trust in one another and in some of our most essential institutions.

As a followup to an Us & Them event in September at West Virginia University (WVU) on trust in the media, host Trey Kay has a new conversation focused on our trust in science. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present examples of our differing confidence in science and medicine, but there are other flash points.

We continue the abortion debate with the central question of when life begins. A few decades ago, evolution was in the spotlight with divisions over the origins of the universe, and of our own species. Now, climate change clearly illustrates our varying understanding about how the world is changing. All of those topics place a spotlight on our confidence in science.

There was a time when scientific advances were heralded – they saved lives, they told us more about our world. But now, some see scientists as villains who are not always worthy of our trust.

Have we simply lost interest in scientists or in the scientific process?

Join us for a new Us & Them from a recent live event on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Daywood Foundation and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

*Us & Them* host Trey Kay leads a discussion about the erosion of public trust in science at Marshall University. His guests were Jonathan Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania’s education historian and author of “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools”; Habiba Chichir, Marshall University’s biological anthropologist; and Dr. Adam Franks, MD, associate residency director for Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. The event was co-sponsored by Marshall University’s John Deaver Drinko Academy, the West Virginia Humanities Council and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the broadcasting home of *Us & Them*.

Earlier this fall, Kay and his team hosted a “Diminished Trust” event at West Virginia University that focused on waning public trust in journalism and the news media. Kay says, “Trust is in short supply in America these days. Across the board and across the political spectrum people seem to lack trust in our government… in many of our agencies and organizations – even in each other. That’s why our *Us & Them* team is staging these conversations to encourage citizens to consider how long our society can sustain this erosion of trust.”

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

A diverse group of students, faculty and community members came to Marshall University’s Drinko Library Atrium to join a live recording of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s *Us & Them*.

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Habiba Chirchir is a biological anthropologist and anatomist at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Her research focuses on understanding the relationship between changes in skeletal anatomy and behavior by investigating trabecular and cortical bones. She conducts comparative analyses of anatomical features in fossil human ancestors, modern humans, other primates and non-primate animals including dogs and big cats using CT imaging. Chirchir earned a BA from the University of Nairobi, an MA from New York University, and a PhD from George Washington University. Chirchir is a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Dr. Adam M. Franks is a family medicine physician at Marshall Health, and a professor and vice chair of the department of family and community health at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Franks’ practice provides full-spectrum care for children and adults, including obstetric and gynecologic care. His research areas include COVID-19 protocols, opioid monitoring protocols and blood borne pathogen exposure monitoring protocol adherence.

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Jonathan Zimmerman is professor of History of Education and the Berkowitz professor in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. A former Peace Corps volunteer and high school teacher, Zimmerman is the author of “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools” (University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed.) and eight other books. Zimmerman is also a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books and other popular publications. Zimmerman taught for 20 years at New York University, where he received its Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008.

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Photo gallery: Members of the audience took advantage of a Q&A session to ask the guests a number of thoughtful questions. Credit: Julie Blackwood

Health Experts Advise Vaccination Ahead Of Respiratory Illness Season

As respiratory illness season ramps up, health experts are encouraging West Virginians to promote health and safety in their communities.

West Virginia University (WVU) health experts are encouraging everyone to practice prevention through vaccination as flu and RSV illness season approaches.

Cases of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus or RSV are common, especially in the fall and winter.

In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the 2023-24 updated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S.

According to experts like Dr. Gretchen Garofoli, a clinical associate professor at the WVU School of Pharmacy, this new vaccine targets the most common variants of COVID-19 currently circulating.

“It’s important to get those vaccines to prevent those types of diseases, or at least to help us get a milder case if we happen to get sick with them,” Garolfoli said. “That [vaccination] is one of the big things that I’d recommend, but also doing things such as washing our hands, staying away from people when we’re sick, trying not to infect those who are elderly, or who may have compromised immune systems, so really doing our part to try and stop the spread of disease while also keeping ourselves and our families and friends healthy.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics is predicting a similar respiratory illness season compared to last year, with a possibility of more widespread illness and health care system strain.

Individuals ages six months and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. West Virginians are encouraged to use the free, online WV COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator to determine when they are eligible and due for any COVID-19 shot.

This year, a new preventative medication against Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) is available for infants.

“For the babies, that’s a little bit different. It’s what we call a monoclonal antibody, so not technically a vaccine, but that helps to offer protection to those littlest folks who tend to have problems when they get RSV at such a young age,” Garolfoli said.

The FDA also approved the use of the first RSV vaccine for people 60 years and older and individuals who are pregnant. According to Garolfoli, vaccine protection is passed on to infants when a pregnant individual becomes vaccinated. The vaccine also protects older adults who are at high risk for severe disease caused by RSV, including life-threatening pneumonia and bronchiolitis.

Finally, an annual flu vaccine is recommended for everyone six months and older, with rare exceptions, and it is particularly important for individuals with conditions that could put them at higher risk for serious complications.

“A lot of people are hesitant with regards to vaccines, and I say that each and every person I talked to has a different reason for being hesitant,” Garolfoli said. “So it’s important for us as health care practitioners, to sit down and really listen to our patients, listen to their concerns, and then be able to address them on an individual basis.”

The CDC estimates during the 2022 to 2023 flu season, there were up to 50 million illnesses, 670,000 hospitalizations and more than 17,000 deaths attributed to flu.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Officials Call For Vigilance Against Respiratory Illness

Sherri Young, the interim secretary of the DHHR, and incoming secretary for the new Department of Health, spoke with Appalachia Health News Reporter Emily Rice about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As fall arrives, COVID-19 numbers are starting to increase. Just this week, the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) released the latest numbers for COVID-related deaths, and they indicated 15 more people had died in just the last week.

Sherri Young, the interim secretary of the DHHR, and incoming secretary for the new Department of Health, spoke with Appalachia Health News Reporter Emily Rice about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Rice: Tell me about the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic and what the public needs to know.

Young: So one thing that the public needs to be aware of is that we have gotten to the point where we can manage and live with COVID. But there’s some things that we can do to keep ourselves safe. And with keeping yourself safe, that means that if we feel sick, or we feel like we have a cold, let’s test, let’s make sure that that’s not the case. If you do test positive, you don’t have to report it, but you should take the proper mitigations to make sure that you reduce the risk of spreading it to other people. And that means staying home and staying away from others for five days, until you’re asymptomatic. And then if you return to work for the next five days for the 10-day total, that you’d wear a mask and just be respectful of your co-workers and people in the general public.

Rice: The FDA and CDC have approved a new COVID-19 vaccine to target variants of the virus. Is that vaccine available in West Virginia?

Young: Yes. So as soon as the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) made their recommendation last week, for those over the age of six months to get that shot, they started shipping out from the warehouses into our pharmacies and into our local health departments. So we’d recommend maybe calling just ahead of time just to make sure that they do have the availability, but most of those have already been shipped. So the availability for that updated vaccine is right in our back door. It’s a great opportunity. And while you’re there, you may want to think about that flu shot as well.

Rice: The new vaccine is recommended for West Virginians ages six months and older, but who will be able to get the shot?

Young: So the difference now is that when we first had vaccines, back in the height of the pandemic, we were giving them out about as fast as we could, and trying to keep up with demand. So the priority had to be around those who had illnesses, those who are older and more vulnerable. And then the recommendations came for the younger folks. The great thing now is that we have the availability for most anybody who wants to get that COVID vaccine. But we still need to make it a priority and educate ourselves on the fact that those who have immune disorders or may be on medications that make their immune system weaker, they do need to make it themselves a priority to get those vaccines because that’s going to help them stave off and hopefully help them from getting COVID. And if not, so then at least having a less severe case due to their medical illnesses.

Rice: What can you tell me about long COVID? Will this new vaccine protect against it?

Young: At different times throughout the pandemic, we’ve identified people who just did not get better from the initial stages, and that can be respiratory illnesses, fatigue, a plethora of things, anything from the loss of smell, and taste that people experience some of the minor symptoms, as well as some very major symptoms are lingering, and people who’ve had COVID, the research that we do have available is that it is much less likely to develop long COVID if you’ve had the vaccine, and that’s because your body has a better ability and can recognize that virus faster because you’ve had the vaccine. It gets your immune system ready to say, ‘Hey, this is a potential threat to us.’ And it helps you mount that defense for your body against COVID.

Rice: Can you speak to the recent increase in infections and hospitalizations we’ve seen attributed to COVID-19?

Young: As we are going into the winter months, we started seeing an uptick around late August, early September, which is when kids go back to school, that’s also when we start to see other respiratory illnesses. So, in some ways, COVID is starting to behave like other respiratory illnesses that we see. When we first were introduced to COVID, there was a different pattern that we were seeing with it. This gives us the ability to have some time to perfect the vaccination updates and make sure that they’re appropriate for what we are seeing at the time. And for right now, the strains that we are seeing are the ones that are present in the vaccines. So we do see an uptick, we’ve seen an uptick of about 3.2 percent in the emergency room visits as well, due to COVID. The way that we monitor it is a little bit different because people do have home tests and other things that don’t get reported the same way.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Officials Advise Vaccination Ahead Of Respiratory Illness Season

Officials recommend West Virginians ages six months and older stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) confirmed an additional 15 West Virginians have died as a result of COVID-19 since last week’s update.

That update brings the state’s total to 8,203 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar, said the newly approved 2023-2024 vaccine is available to anyone in West Virginia and can help protect against the virus and its possible long-term symptoms.

“We also know that people in their middle ages, in their 30s to 50s, are the ones that have the highest risk of developing long COVID,” Marsh said. “And the more times you’ve been infected with COVID, the more risks that you have of developing long COVID activities.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

New COVID-19 Vaccine Protects Against Variants

A new COVID-19 has been approved for all Americans six months and older.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agreed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s decision to approve a new COVID-19 vaccine.

In a prerecorded update recorded the evening of Sept. 12, Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus czar, provided updates surrounding the new vaccine.

“The recommendation of the advisory committee was to make the shots available for all Americans six months and older, and that’s really exciting,” Marsh said. “Because we know this particular shot, which is designed to target the most common variants, the most common forms of COVID-19 that are circulating right now.”

Marsh said the vaccine will protect from the most common strains of the virus and reduce the risk of Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions by 50 percent.

“And we also know that long COVID happens to about 10 to 15 percent of people that have been infected with COVID-19,” he said. “The risk of long COVID goes up the more times you’re infected, so it’s really important for all age categories to consider getting the updated COVID shot as part of your protection against death and illness but also against long COVID.”

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reported five additional deaths attributed to COVID-19 since last week’s update for a total of 8,188.

“People who are older, and people whose immune systems are not normal, are at the highest risk of severe disease,” Marsh said. “And that’s important because we’ve seen about a 16 percent increase in hospitalizations over the last week or week and a half. And also we’ve seen an increase in the number of deaths from COVID.”

The new vaccines are manufactured by Moderna and by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech.

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be free for most with private health insurance or coverage through Medicare or Medicaid.

This will be the first time the federal government is not buying all the COVID-19 vaccines and distributing them for free, so doctors, hospitals and pharmacies must order them directly.

A federal program to provide free shots to uninsured people at pharmacies will likely launch in mid-October, according to the CDC.

“We know that we’re seeing a slight surge, a slight increase in the risk of spreading COVID-19,” Marsh said. “So the timing of this new COVID-19 shot could not be better.”

Visit the West Virginia COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator to determine when you may be due for a COVID-19 shot.

“Please don’t hesitate to visit our vaccine calculator at vaccinate.wv.gov which is updating even as we speak with the newest recommendations from the FDA and the CDC,” Marsh said. “Also check with your local pharmacies or your medical practices to find out when the vaccines will become available.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.