ON THE FRONT LINE

While most were quarantining at home during the height of the pandemic, Dr. Rajeev Fernando was at the forefront of the world’s biggest health crisis in the past 100 years. He shares his inspiring journey with Spotlight.

BY DR. RAJEEV FERNANDO

Dr. Rajeev Fernando

In late 2019, I began following a mysterious new pneumonia out of Wuhan, China. At the time, there were no documented cases of human-to-human transmission. I wanted to learn more about this novel virus, and the only way to do this effectively was to travel to Wuhan. There were only 48 cases in the world at the time, and after my investigation, I concluded that there was, in fact, human-to-human transmission.

After I returned from China, I began spreading awareness about the danger of the new virus, now called COVID-19. Once the first case in Seattle was diagnosed—a traveler from Wuhan—I knew it was a matter of time before cases exploded in the United States. In reality, the virus was very likely spreading subclinically earlier than this.

New York City soon became the epicenter, and cases quickly disseminated to Long Island. I was recruited as an infectiousdiseases specialist to work in New York City on a FEMA contract. Community means everything to me, so I ended up working as director of infectious diseases at Southampton Hospital during the day and went to NYC to work the night shifts. COVID-19 was killing people mercilessly, and I wanted to do everything I could to help.

Long Island is my home, and I wanted to keep our community safe. The mayor of Southampton, Jesse Warren, reached out to see how we could provide safe, reliable, and updated information to our neighbors. We started our daily Instagram Live Q&A sessions discussing new insights about the virus. Then 102.7 FM followed, and we did morning updates on the drive. LI News Radio and News 12 also joined. This proved to be a catalyst to spreading my information around the world, from the BBC, all the way to South Korea and Japan. I still needed to do more. My charity, CHIRAJ, started manufacturing our six-layer face masks, which were distributed across the U.S. and then subsequently to 36 countries around the world. We focused on impoverished countries and to date have donated more than 70,000 face masks. We started an emergency field hospital when the Delta variant emerged out of India, offering free care to all. Even though many restrictions

have been relaxed, COVID-19 is not going away. There will be ongoing mutations, which will spur novel variants, so we need to remain vigilant. However, I feel the worst is behind us. Fast-forward, I wanted to further my education in preparedness for future pandemic planning. I accepted a fellowship position in disaster medicine at BIDMC/Harvard Medical School in Boston. Social causes are central and when time permits, I design clothes that have supported the Stop Asian Hate, Black Lives Matter, and LGBT+ movements. On February 24, Russia Designs for a cause invaded Ukraine on a large scale. I was on the ground on the 28th to volunteer as a physician. Through my charity, we were able to distribute free medicine and supplies and take it to the places most in need. We worked through Russian missile strikes to get our supplies to army hospitals in Kyiv. Humanity must prevail. We have a medical clinic to help refugees in Kyiv with a focus on women’s health, gender-based violence, and PTSD. I’m asking for help to help run this critical refugee clinic, which will save lives in this unfortunate population. Disaster preparedness and global surveillance of emerging infectious diseases are critical in mitigating ahead of future pandemics. Should this occur, it’ll be an honor to return to the front lines and serve. For more information about how you can help, e-mail me at rajeevsantiago@gmail.com and see our humanitarian work at chiraj.org. T

On the ground in Kyiv, Ukraine

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