Hua Wang Supporting the COVID-19 Frontline in Wuhan and Massachusetts
One Professor’s Extraordinary Extracurriculars
Professor Hua Wang was interviewed by Ross Cristantiello for Lexington Wicked Local.
Professor Hua Wang has been organizing local residents to combat COVID-19 since Wuhan, China emerged as the virus epicenter. As president and spokesperson of the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL), Wang oversaw CAAL in donating thousands of dollars and personal protective equipment (PPE) to people in Wuhan to help stabilize the city.
Wang has since pivoted attention from Wuhan to his local community, Lexington, Massachusetts.
“We talked with people from many [local] hospitals…people on the frontlines like doctors and nurses,” Wang said. “The situation was dire.”
CAAL and Chinese Americans of Lexington (CALex) joined forces to help prepare Lexington. They consulted with government officials and the Lexington school system to share relevant knowledge from Wuhan. They encouraged the community to take precautions early on, like social distancing, and they translated CDC recommendations into Mandarin.
CAAL and CALex didn’t stop there. The organizations established a system by which their team purchased PPE from China, shipped it to the US and verified the completion of each order. These goods were distributed to locals on the frontlines, all of whom had utilized an online PPE database generated to record the increasing demand.
“[CAAL] raised close to $190K and donated a staggering sum of PPE to the frontlines,” Wang said.
According reporter Ross Cristantiello, “CAAL and CALex have donated over 91,000 masks to hospitals, police officers, and other essential workers, as well as the donation of other PPE items like goggles, gloves, and protective suits. More than $100,000 has been donated to these organizations to help slow the coronavirus spread by Lexington residents and people outside the town and even the state.”
Professor Hua Wang is Associate Head of Boston University Division of Systems Engineering. He is a professor of mechanical engineering and systems engineering and affiliated with BU Center for Information and Systems Engineering.
Photos courtesy of CAAL.