Frank Bates was surprised to hear last week from an old student of his at the University of Minnesota. Bates, a Regents professor of chemical engineering, hadn’t heard from the former doctoral fellow since he returned to China as an assistant professor in 2016.
The former student, Dr. J. Zhang, emailed Bates on March 23 to ask how he and Minnesotans were coping with the coronavirus pandemic and whether local health care workers could use face masks.
“I indicated anything he could do would be helpful and welcome,” Bates said in an email Tuesday. “Honestly, I didn’t expect anything to come of this given the hurdles he would face in finding and shipping masks.”
To Bates’ astonishment, a large box shipped by FedEx arrived on his doorstep last Friday. Inside were 2,000 civil disposal masks. Bates took them to the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics drop site.
“Jiuyang demonstrated truly genuine compassion and reflected a desire to help colleagues far from his home in China,” Bates said. “Frankly, I was surprised to hear from him as we had not communicated with each other for several years. That he was selflessly thinking of me and my colleagues at this challenging time is really heart-warming.”
Bates also was surprised Dr. Zhang was able to find and ship so many masks in a country also combating the virus, which has killed more than 41,000 worldwide, including nearly 3,200 in China.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been more than 3,400 coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S.
“While these were not N95 masks, they are valuable,” Bates wrote, adding, “That an individual like Jiuyang can find and ship 2,000 masks makes me wonder what could be accomplished with a little cooperation between China and the U.S. But that is beyond my pay grade!”
MORE THAN 700 MASKS
Business has been slow for Maly Vu, who owns and operates City Taylors in Woodbury, so she put her time and energy to work making face masks for health care workers.
Vu, of Hastings, estimates she and her sister-in-law Sheng Yang have made and distributed more than 700 masks since March 23. Vu, 50, said she found material requirements on social media and went to work. The masks are 100 percent cotton, with flannel on the inside and elastic loops that go around the ears.
After posting her plans on Facebook she quickly began getting requests from health care workers and lay people and began giving them away to “whoever needs it.”
“They messaged me and we set up a time and they came and picked them up,” Vu said.
She estimates that by herself, she could make about 100 masks a day. With a total budget of $300, Vu said she probably has another day or two before she runs out of material, but not before making in the neighborhood of 1,000 masks.
3D GROWTH
The St. Thomas Academy teacher making face shields with the school’s formerly idle 3D printers said the Minnesota branch of a national network calling itself the Face Shields more than doubled in 24 hours. “By the end of the day today we will have added over 100 3D printers,” Mark Westlake of Lakeville told the Pioneer Press on Tuesday.
Have a story about people helping people cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Email John Shipley at jshipley@pioneerpress.com.