Back in March, Yihan Yang, MD, instructor (general internal medicine) was contacted by a close family friend and President of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) Chen Zhu, MD, to ask about making a donation of personal protective equipment to Yale.
Yale University has had over a century-long relationship with China, and was the first American university to confer a degree to a student from China in 1854. “Dr. Chen was concerned when he heard about Yale’s doubling rate when we first started getting COVID+ patients,” explained Yang. “It took some time to coordinate the donation coming from China.”
RCSC’s donation of 20,000 N95 and 50,000 surgical masks will help protect frontline healthcare workers. International transportation challenges slowed down the ninety boxes in transit, which arrived at Yale in early June. Stephen Huot, MD, PhD, professor of medicine (nephrology) and associate dean for Graduate Medical Education and Ronald Vender, MD, professor of medicine (digestive diseases) and chief medical officer of Yale Medicine, facilitated the donation process, along with members of Yale New Haven Health’s supply chain staff, who organized transportation of the donation through customs at JFK to New Haven.