Masks from SAS for Chicago nursing homes

Dear SAS community & alumni, family and friends, 

Thank you for your interest in supporting Chicago healthcare workers. 

We are a group of current juniors at Shanghai American School (SAS) Pudong. Over the past few weeks, we have been in contact with suppliers for personal protective equipment (PPE) in China and the US. We connected with SAS alum Meredith Yang ‘10, who is currently a medical student at the University of Chicago. She, together with the leaders of GetMePPE Chicago  (a city-wide organization led by medical trainees), have emphasized to us that the locations most urgently in need of PPE right now are nursing homes in Chicago. 

100% of funds raised here will be used to send PPE directly to nursing homes on the South Side of Chicago, namely Symphony of Bronzeville, Symphony of South Shore, Symphony of Midway and Symphony of Morgan Park. These 4 facilities are part of the Symphony Care Network, who have faced severe outbreaks.  Just last week Symphony South Shore reported 111 positive COVID-19 tests out of 158 residents. 

The US outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted the disproportionate impact it has had on our most vulnerable communities. Black Chicagoans comprise 72% of deaths in Chicago residents but make up only 30% of the city’s population, a confirmatory statistic of the extreme racial and economic disparities rooted deeply in segregated cities like Chicago. 

Nursing homes are a hotspot for COVID-19 in Chicago. Half of all COVID-19 deaths in Cook County (of which Chicago is in) have been in nursing homes. The number of deaths in Illinois long term care facilities alone have more than doubled  in just one week, with cases jumping from 1,860 to 4,200 in the same time period . An elderly population with existing underlying health issues, combined with high rates of transmission, lack of staffing, testing, and lack of PPE all increase the risk of death. Effective social distancing practices in communal settings are challenging. Many nursing homes have found it difficult to source for PPE at all when existing supplier contracts favor large hospital systems. 

Moreover medical staff at these homes are predominantly individuals of color, most of whom work for minimum wage and struggle to afford basic necessities or healthcare themselves. Just this past Monday April 27, thousands of nursing home workers in Illinois have pledged to go on strike on May 8 , over lack of PPE, staffing shortages, and higher wages. A strike of this magnitude will have a detrimental impact on our elderly--but goes to show the extent to which healthcare workers have been frustrated by the lack of PPE and hazardous working conditions.

As an American school situated in Shanghai, with our proximity to medical suppliers, we recognize that we are in a unique position to meaningfully help an under-resourced community address the PPE shortage in COVID-19. With current prices, we can buy 4 KN95s for just 10 USD. We also intend to send isolation gowns and surgical masks.  

In a time of crisis, it is even more crucial for the SAS community to come together and support those in need, even when far away. We are extremely thankful for your generosity and we hope that you will share this fundraiser with others. Please feel free to reach out to us at any of the email addresses below. 

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Thank you! 
Debbie Shih, Alice Lyu, Chuyi Shang, and Meredith Yang