Elizabeth Co loading medical supplies for the trip to Brigham and Women’s Hospital on March 19. Photo by Jonathan Li

Health & Medicine

BU Researchers Heed Plea to Help Local Hospital Workers

Donations of critically needed protective gear like masks and gloves go to workers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

A conversation with a friend last week led Elizabeth Co to immediately begin mobilizing to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. She learned from Jonathan Li, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor, who’s on the staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, that the hospital’s healthcare staff were reusing their masks and other protective gear. They were fearful of running out of these critical medical supplies as the number of those infected with the virus was continuing to climb.

Co, a Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences clinical assistant professor and Human Physiology program director, immediately thought of the N95 masks she had ordered for her Sargent anatomy lab a month ago, just weeks before BU decided to move to remote teaching and learning for the rest of the semester in response to the pandemic. Hospitals across the country have been reporting a shortage of the N95 masks, which are designed to protect wearers from inhaling most particles that could cause disease. 

“I know that nobody is getting these masks now, but somehow we did,” she says. “I thought, we’re sitting on these cases of lifesaving masks, when you know doctors everywhere are facing shortages. So, I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got masks.’”

In addition to pledging masks from her lab, Co persuaded the College of Arts & Sciences biology department to encourage others to join a collection drive, with drop-off bins at Sargent and the Life Science & Engineering Building. An email alert worked so well that when Co and Li met to gather the boxes, they couldn’t fit everything in their vehicles (an SUV and a minivan). Co needed to make a second trip to the hospital.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital staff receive donated personal protective equipment from BU faculty on March 19. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Co

Lucy Hutyra, a CAS associate professor of earth and environment, whose lab uses protective gloves for its research into carbon emissions and ecosystem ecology, was among those who saw the email about the items the hospital needed. She drove to her research lab with her seven-year-old son to grab about 10 boxes of gloves to add to the growing pile.

“Honestly, I was incredibly proud of the community coming together,” Hutyra says in a Twitter post about the supplies collected outside the building’s stockroom. “In the pile I saw pretty much everything that they asked for. I saw lots of respirators. I saw lots of boxes with gloves. And there were shoe covers and just a wide range of things that people usually have relatively small quantities of in their lab.”

Sarah Davies, a CAS assistant professor of biology, donated boxes of nitrile examination gloves from her lab as well. She and her graduate students studying endangered corals wear the gloves to protect their hands from chemicals in the lab and to prevent damaging the corals. “Everybody knew we were not going to be doing any science anytime soon. I think everyone is feeling pretty helpless,” she says, “so it is good to be able to do something like donate our gloves. It’s not much, but it still felt like we were doing something.” 

Davies also shared an image of the donation on Twitter in the hope that it would generate more awareness. She says an academic colleague at Harvard saw her post and planned to make a donation.

This is Co’s hope, too. “I think everyone who donated, and probably everyone in the world, wishes that they could do something more right now,” she says.

“If my friend contracted the virus, and I knew that I had kept those masks to myself, you know? We all need to do anything we can do safely to help. And this was something that I could do. I think anybody would have made the same choice,” she says.

The donations made an immediate impact. Co’s message to her colleagues: “The hospital staff that were helping to unpack and move the items were overwhelmed with gratitude.”

Li, whose Brigham and Women’s lab is working with a national consortium to create a repository for drug and vaccine development, will use some of the supplies as well. After the delivery, he wrote on Twitter: “This evening I dropped off a large donation of masks, gloves and other essential supplies organized by Dr. Elizabeth Co and the Physiology and Biology depts of @BU_Tweets for the healthcare team @BrighamWomens. These are hard days, but I take heart that we are still #bostonstrong.”

Those interested in donating medical supplies to Boston Medical Center can find more information at BMCneedPPE@gmail.com. Supplies can be left at the BU School of Medicine lobby, 72 E Concord St., Boston. Those interested in donating supplies to Brigham and Women’s Hospital can find information here.