On March 26 (EDT), China Central Television livestreamed a webinar featuring Fudan professor Zhang Wenhong and 4 Chinese expats in the U.S.
A screenshot of the webinar with Professor Zhang Wenhong on the top left
Since the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations in 1979, both China and the U.S. have received a growing number of inbound students, researchers and workers from the other country over the past decades.
To help the large Chinese expat community in the U.S. better understand COVID-19 amid the escalated outbreak in the U.S., the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. invited Professor Zhang Wenhong, head of Shanghai’s COVID-19 expert team and director of the Infectious Diseases Department at Fudan-Huashan Hospital, to join a live webinar at 9 a.m. on March 26 (EDT) with 4 representatives studying or working in the U.S before taking questions from viewers.
The 2-hour webinar was streamlined live on multiple platforms, including CCTV, Bilibili, Toutiao, Tiktok, Tencent, iQiyi, etc., with more than 100 million viewers.
The following day, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai, sent Professor Zhang a handwritten letter expressing his gratitude.
A thank-you letter to Professor Zhang Wenhong from the Chinese Ambassador to the United States
“Human beings have rich experience dealing with horrible viruses such as SARS, H1N1 and Ebola”, Professor Zhang expressed strong confidence in the global fight against COVID-19 during the webinar. He believed that with concerted efforts across the globe, the U.S. will soon see the beginning of success in the fight against the virus.
As the U.S. is currently confronted with a rapid increase of confirmed cases, Zhang said it remained to be seen when the peak of confirmed would come, as the quarantine measures and testing had not been thoroughly carried out in the U.S. But he was generally optimistic about the health care system in the U.S.
Many viewers of the webinar were parents of the Chinese students studying in the U.S. According to data from US Homeland Security, there are around 368,800 Chinese students in the U.S. at the moment, accounting for 32.18% of all international students in the U.S. For students of minor age who are still adapting to the new language and culture in the U.S., this life-threatening pandemic has compounded the concern of their parents.
The symptoms of COVID-19 and seasonal flu can look similar, said Zhang. “If you have a fever, first try to bring it down yourself. Have more sleep, water, Vitamin C, fruits, eggs and milk. Turn your cell phone off.” He asked parents not to pass on anxiety to their kids as it would be of no use and might instead scare them. Since breathing difficulty is an indication more likely of infection than of fever, Zhang advised students trying climbing a few passages of stairs to see if there is any usual short of breath. “If you sense any unusual breathing difficulty, this is the moment you need to consult a doctor.” It is also wise to seek help from the Chinese embassy in the U.S., he added.
Wearing a mask, as an effective measure to cut down transmission, has been accepted quite easily by most Asian countries, but not so by Western countries. Zhang thought cultural difference was one of the main reasons. American people are told to wear a mask only when they are ill and that masks are not for healthy people. It can be psychologically overwhelming for Chinese students and workers in the U.S. to become the rebellious individuals by sticking to mask-wearing and ignoring the long, hard stares shooting at them. But Zhang advised that they should still wear masks in crowded spaces and oriental stores where mask-wearing is culturally accepted. Considering the insufficient stock of masks in many countries, masks should indeed be reserved for patients and medics.
To those viewers concerned about the possibility of airborne transmission, Zhang said airborne transmission was statistically significant only in the case of a large load of the virus within a confined space. To dispel doubts about using elevators, Zhang took Shanghai as an example. According to the city’s real-time infection tracking system, not a single case has been linked to the use of elevator with an affected person. “The most effective measures to stay away from the virus so far include social distancing, washing hands frequently and wearing a mask. If you can do all the three, the chance of getting infected will be very small”, said Zhang.
In addition, he suggested Chinese expats in the U.S. to use discretion as to returning to China. “Remember to check if your visa allows you to re-enter the U.S. afterwards. Also, coming back to China means a troublesome health check procedure and a 14-day quarantine in a designated facility.” According to Zhang, many travelers who tested positive had already been infected before boarding, though hours of stay in a plane cabin can also pose a significant exposure to infection risk.
To conclude, the professor gave very candid and practical advice to the Chinese students in the U.S. torn between to return or not to return China: “Come back if you only have a cheap health insurance that doesn’t cover a lot of treatments; if you have nothing better to do at the moment and are simply fooling around; or if you are panicked and your parents want you back home desperately. But in all other cases, I advise you to stay in the U.S. and carry on with what you do. ”
