A Race Against Time: Combating Coronavirus
“I am grateful to be reminded that there is more that connects us than that which divides.”
Today, 1.6 tons of protective gear arrived in China from New York, carrying heartfelt wishes, soon to reach the frontline medical workers in Wuhan (2/18 update: a hospital director dies from the virus), the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. My undergrad alma mater, Beijing Foreign Studies University, one of the oldest universities in China, stepped up just weeks ago, among many self-organized communities globally, to join the race to save lives.
Alums all over the world worked together to pull this effort off. Some raised funds in the alum community. Some scavenged in-demand inventory before they run out of stock. And some lined up international freight-forwarder. We were all doing this for the first time.
Seeing the photo of the cargo going into the aircraft was a touching moment after weeks of grueling learning and hard work because you know that the life-saving products are getting one step closer to those in need.
Being involved in this grassroots effort has taught me a few lessons:
1) Mission-driven teams operate autonomously and effectively: people work for the goal without being asked to. Alums in China, the U.S., the U.K., Argentina, and more work around the clock outside of their day job in the race to secure medical supplies. Many of us have never met each other. Ego fades away, leaving room for collaboration and celebration for each other's success.
2) Teamwork scales impact, and EVERYONE matters. If there is no funding, there is no leverage. Only by knowing the needs of the hospital were we able to prioritize where to spend money. Without the procurement team converting funding into supplies, money alone doesn't save people's lives. Without settling all the logistics and filing for customs, the cargo would not make it into the hands of medical workers. No one role is more critical than others, and we now are all holding our collective breaths for the supplies to arrive at the front line and make a real impact.
3) A leader who unblocks the team offers the most amount of conviction and inspires the team. Last Wednesday, the night before the original shipment date, the freight forwarder brought bad news. A change in regulation prohibited them from supporting our shipment, and with most of the US-China flights banned, it was almost impossible to get 1.6 tons of goods off the ground. None of the volunteers came with logistic backgrounds - we didn't know what to do, and weeks of sleep deprivation finally crept up, dragging down morale: we felt defeated and helpless like leaking balloons. The head of the U.S. alum club, Rachel Wang, a mother and a real estate developer in New York, continued pushing through, "let me ask around and see if we know anyone who works for airlines." It was midnight in Eastern time, and she was no less tired than any of us, but her calm tone demonstrated an amount of resilience that cheered us up. The next day, after pinging a wide range of alums and friendly strangers, we got in touch with China Southern Airlines, whose last flight would leave the U.S. the upcoming Saturday. They agreed to ship the goods as a priority for the cause, and waive the $13,000 fee. It was refreshing how much a team comes closer when a leader shows ownership. (A big shoutout to China Southern Airlines for graciously donating their cargo capacity in support of the battle against a global health crisis.)
4) Tech is sexy, but our media narrative has undervalued manufacturing for a long time. My seven-year Amazon tenure focuses on scalable technology (in Amazon Web Services), and now I finally understood the magic of retail through the lens of B2B procurement. Had it not been Amazon Business's diligent work to search through their seller network in time of such shortage, we would not have been able to secure 15,000 isolation gown and thousands of other protective gear. (Thank you, Morgan Lummis, for your hard work!) Cloud computing and A.I. will sure play a significant role in sequencing the virus and accelerating the production of a vaccine. Meanwhile, the medical workers don't survive on "Instagram likes." This disaster response highlights the importance of boosting manufacturing (and distributed agriculture to some extent) so that human communities can remain resilient.
What we accomplished is only a small fraction of the grassroots effort from NGOs, companies, and philanthropic foundations, many donating millions of dollars worth of goods in response to the first global crisis in the 2020s. I am grateful that I get to experience a race for life across borders with some of the most heartwarming people and be reminded that there is more that connects us than that which divides.
