UCA Launches Tracy’s Guide for Families to Help Combat COVID-19

UCA announces the launch of the “COVID-19: Tracy’s Guide for Families”

Help Combat the Coronavirus in and Around our Homes

Washington, DC (April 10, 2020) – United Chinese Americans (UCA) proudly announces the publication of an educational series for families: “COVID-19: Tracy’s Guide for Families” (the “Guide”) on its website https://ucausa.org/tracys-guide-on-covid-19/ (official blog: tracysguide.blogspot.com). The Guide is a running online series aimed to provide useful knowledge and tips for protecting our loved ones and our home as we work together to “flatten the curve”.  As more than 80 percent of Americans are now under stay-at-home orders, learning how to take care of our homes and protect family members is a critical part of the national effort to control the pandemic.  In this Guide, UCA is gathering valuable experiences from Chinese-speaking regions that are recovering from the COVID-19 epidemic, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, so their hard lessons-learned can be shared with the rest of the world.

Materials in the guide are collated and distilled from the official medical guidelines, prevention books, and published materials, from China and other regions, then adopted into English literature based on American custom by freelance writers, translators and artists. They are also cross-checked and referenced, and combined with those from CDC and various state public health departments, with an aim to bring out these contents to American families and communities in a timely fashion. The guide is the product of teamwork and collaborative effort by more than 40 volunteers and UCA members, both in the US and China. Many of them are healthcare professionals, biomedical scientists, and medical doctors involved in fighting the COVID-19 pandemics since the beginning.

Through a factitious character named “Ms. Tracy”, the key steps in COVID-19 prevention, how to disinfect common household items and areas such as kitchen and bathroom, and how to take care of the sick, are addressed by a lively question-and-answer dialog fashion. The materials are specially organized and illustrated to make it easy to understand, attractive to children, and relatable to the general public. More than 40 articles will be forthcoming, addressing questions and providing know-how in the most commonly encountered situations at home and in community settings.

UCA and its members have been actively engaged in the relief effort and public health education since the beginning of the pandemics in China.  “Projects like “Tracy’s Guide for Families” to contribute to the fight, initiated and organized by UCA volunteers, are happening in every city and township in America.” commented by UCA President, Haipei Shue. “This is the time for us to work together, to put aside our biases on race, politics, religions, or anything that could divide us. The war against COVID-19 pandemic is a global one. People all over the world must work together side by side to win it at the end!”

For more information on the Guide, as well as other efforts by UCA members and the Chinese-American community to combat Covid-19 in America, contact Helen Shih/ helenshih1111@gmail.com.