NEWSLETTER
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China Medical Board’s Response
By Suzanne Siskel and Lincoln Chen
The Ford Foundation has had a long relationship with the China Medical Board (CMB) and LAFF members have been influential in its work. Suzanne Siskel, a co-president of LAFF, is vice chair of the CMB board; Dr. Lincoln Chen, a LAFF member, is its president, and the late Peter Geithner, who had been a president of LAFF, was a senior adviser to the CMB for many years.
The China Medical Board (CMB) is doing three things in response to the coronavirus pandemic:
Almost immediately, CMB’s trustees approved a $2 million special appropriation that enabled our Beijing Director to purchase 10 disinfecting fans from Finland for the fever wards of leading Chinese hospitals in our CMB Consortium. These fans are intended to protect health workers as well as patients.
In response to Chinese health professionals worried about their American counterparts, CMB staff directors managed to purchase hundreds of N95 masks and 20,000 to 30,000 surgical masks that are now being delivered to Boston hospitals. CMB trustees and staff also have received surgical masks.
Finally, for long-term impact, we are canvassing for education and training in infection control in the community, hospitals and at home, and for building this priority into China’s medical education system. The key is to investigate where the best trainers and training programs are located so they can be connected to our Consortium’s medical schools and hospitals.
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