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Today is July 22, 2020. My name is Ann Shi and I'm with the Houston Asian American Archive. Today we have Dr. Amy Kan who will speak with us about her COVID-19

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experiences. She is one of the researcher, scientist and editor of the Brine Chemistry Consortium at Rice University. And thank you Dr.

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Kan, for taking out your time to speak with us today. And to start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself since it's the first time you're on the archive with us? Okay, ah...

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Let me see. Continue. Yeah. My name is Amy Kan. I work at Rice for over 30 years

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at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. And I manage a lab. We have about 10 people in the group and...

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We can talk about that. Is that your question? Yeah, yeah. I was just wondering if you could also share with us how the coronavirus pandemic has

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impacted your life? Okay, this has several levels. In the business, a research group. Many people doesn't realize this, that

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in the university. the research group actually is self-reliant. We, well, funding support, anything that we

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do— including a piece of paper, that we have to come up with financial support for all our people, which is we have 10 students and PhD level staff members, researchers.

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And also So our funding could be coming annually, but the next year will be a really, a challenging time because we depend on the energy

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industry, the oil industry for funding majority of our activity is in this, you know, the– the energy, the oil company wasn't doing very well. And on top of this, we have this pandemic, which

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set a lot of limitation about what we can do, how much we can do, we try our best to make progress. On the family level I have, you know, I have relatives, aunts and uncles in the age of 90s

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to 100 years old. So we actually have a family reunion to celebrate my aunt's 100 years old of birthday and that has to be cancelled. And so I worry about their

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safety, their health. My uncle is in retirement home, so that's not a very good environment for them. So there's a lot of worry in that.

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But at the personal level, maybe you didn't know I am one of the first people who was infected by the virus. Fortunately at the end of it is, we— I count my blessing, we

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really didn't– wasn't hurt too bad in all these aspects, just worries. Fortunately, that's where we are right now. A lot of worries, but none really

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materialized to hurt us. Although, but we do lose a friend to the virus. That's very sad. Yeah, definitely. Very sad to lose that friend of yours.

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And fortunately, you have recovered. We are very grateful for that too. Can you share with us how— what kind of protections you have been taking to protect yourself and others during this pandemic?

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Yeah, um, I really... So this whole episode, I really appreciate that my background training in science. I contracted this virus

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through a visit to Egypt. Very early. This is way before Houston has no case. I probably— I may be the first case or publicly known case in Houston.

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And I'm very fortunate. Actually, while we were on the tour, several people— this is a tour with 36 attendants in the group.

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And 30 of the Americans and 6 Canadians. And during the tour, we have observed about our– our tour guy is the first person to say he's sick; but then he doesn't tell us

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how actually --. Thinking back on that I think he is very sick. But he didn't tell us.

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He said he had a bad diet. So he had some diarrhea and that's it. But following that, several people were sick— Americans. And then my

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sister went with us. My sister worked for pathology department in a medical school before she retired, so she deal with virus in her professional life.

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She told me on the plane, she live Maryland, I live in Houston. So we depart at Heathrow Airport. She told me that she doesn't think that— she thinks

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something is wrong, because she and her husband didn't feel well. So the day we came back, we came back on the Thursday; on the Friday, I also feel sick.

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And on the Saturday, my husband felt sick. And– and that's the exact day the day we came back, we saw the news about Italy and Spain. Korea first, and

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then in Spain. I have the gut feeling that maybe potentially we will– we are infected. Of course. We don't have any proof.

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On the Wednesday of the following week, I actually visited my doctor, and my doctor didn't seem— I don't blame him at all.

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You know, the whole medical professional hadn't realized that this could be real. This could be coming to Houston, Texas. So my doctor didn't think I have the possibility

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at all, because I do not have upper respiratory symptoms. All I have is a low fever and the fever didn't count as a fever if you talk about medical terms; my fever is below 100-degree Fahrenheit.

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But I seldom feel sick, so I can– I can feel that it's unusual. So the following Monday or Tuesday, I still go to work, but I bring my mask.

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I wear my mask and I shorten my hours in the office just for two or three hours. We have a group meeting, I have my mask.

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Some people may find this funny, funny. Wearing a mask at that time is a funny thing to do. But then Wednesday I visited the doctor. The doctor still don't think I have anything.

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I think when I face this thing that I feel sorry for, is that Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. So I actually

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went to the church in the evening. Because that morning, the doctor assured me this and that I had nothing; and I also feel fine. You know, I don't have coughing, runny nose or anything.

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So but I still take cautious step, I sit on the very end and then leave very quickly. So, um, then until this Saturday, we had our friend in Taiwan

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who is on the same trip find out, she is positive she is she has been positively tested. So we immediately inform Rice and Rice helped me get

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onto to contact with Harris County Public Health Department, and they are very, very professional. Harris County Public Health. I can tell that the agent who work with

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me is following the book in contact tracing. So she asked— sometimes we communicate at 11pm on texts, she had all kinds of question, make sure I

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list all the contacts I had. And she follow up with all the contacts. Inform the church about my presence at

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the mass. And I felt that at the end, we didn't– I didn't– there's no evidence I spread this virus. This virus

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that bring in, probably passed away in my body. This is one consolation that I have. I felt I did. I tried to be a good citizen. Do the right thing.

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And none– none, I never— since I came back, I haven't met any friends. So no friends is exposed. And mask and social distancing, does

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help. This I— they say typically one or two people you will transmit this disease to on average; I think, is two per patient. But I think I may have

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minimize that on myself, mainly because I believe in the science and I kind of have some understanding, so to take care of it even before the authority, before

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being tested, so that's a personal part. But it's really sad to see that Houston and Texas still go through the same magnitude

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of infections. We should have learned a lot from the experience in New York and New Jersey. And as I just say, I think we

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have the local authority, the local public health is doing a great job. But when the number is so large, I don't think they can do anything about it.

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But my personal experience has been they are very professional. They did a very good job in tracing. If there's only a few people like me, that probably will be controlled, but when we have a large number.

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This is— just we have to bear with it. Yeah, thank you so much. And I just want to say we really appreciate your taking so much precautions. I know how difficult it was.

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And end of February when everyone was not wearing masks, as CDC telling us that we shouldn't be wearing a mask for this respiratory illness. And yeah, and thanks to

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your scientific background who has allowed us to know so much information before there's information that was public. Yeah. So next I was just wondering, what would you

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like to say to people who are still protesting against the wearing of masks as times of now where we're still in the uprising trend of the illness in Houston in Texas, and the southern United States?

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Well, I think everybody needs the time to learn about, learn about it. This is something new, you know. Different people have different life experience. For me, because of my training in science in...

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I think being Asian is more— we were more alert to this because even though I didn't live in Asia when they have SARS or the other kind of viruses, the recent– recent spread of viruses.

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But we hear more about this so we are more alert to it. Our friends in Asia, when they go through the SARS we pay attention to

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that. So we are a little bit ahead in our— in this kind of thinking. But for someone else who doesn't have this exposure with it, they would take a bit longer to realize, you know, this is not— nothing to do with

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politics. It's something to do with our economy, our life. And I can totally— I have the same kind of concern about the economy as the small business

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owners; because we also have to come up with the means to support our students and research staff. So I can understand we need to go back to work, but then we need to protect ourselves that is, so- so-

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so that we all can be safe, that people doesn't die from the disease. And I'm sure I'm sure that people eventually wear their masks but yet

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the more resistant we have the longer it's gonna take. Yeah for sure. Thank you for sharing that, Dr. Kan. Next I was just wondering for you personally,

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have you been experiencing anxiety or any type of depression during this whole... because all these experiences sounds really traumatic being, yeah, infected at first and then having to go through that much

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um incidences? Yeah um, but I guess the main anxiety would be my, you know, I— we have a very close family and

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we really worry about my, our elder relatives and not being able to visit them; and knowing that the condition could be very, very bad. That worries... It is worrisome.

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Right? Other than that I'm optimistic person, and I treasure the opportunity to be alone to have some free time to think about deeper things. So are you uh, quarantine by yourself like during this past few months

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or do you live with your family? I live with my husband and my daughter came back. She's graduating so she has a lot of free times

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and she came back a little bit. We don't— we- we- we volunteered at Houston SPCA. And so, over the

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past few months, we've picked up puppy and dogs. You know, they are the best friend of mankind, really, really cute. So without being able to interact with human friends, we are very satisfied with our puppy and

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dogs visitors at home. Yeah, that's great. We have so much to thank, be thankful for our pets during this pandemic for sure. Well, yeah, so has this quarantine period help you or

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help you discover more about yourself, like having to spend more time being introspective; and do you have any more reflections about yourself during this period? Oh, not

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so much. I'm still very, very busy. Try to... we try– we're still trying to work to produce research, even though it's... because it's actually become more difficult.

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So it's a good time to be able to do some more readings. And we have– we have a group meeting on Zoom every week— then we have, we

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actually... I also is on a committee with the Society of Petroleum Engineer, that we had the first, what do you call it, online meeting, international meeting. This meeting supposed to be held in Aberdeen,

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Scotland, in June, June 24, and 25th. It's a bi-annual meeting. So it happen this year.

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But every year it will be Aberdeen, Scotland. So when this thing happened, the Committee decided that we would like to have a

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virtual meeting. So that also keep me busy to help with this process. We are all kind of nervous.

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I'm still nervous online. So I think also, this pushes us, especially we're the oldest senior group that we are not technically

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ready, technically advanced with this new technology. But even my 90 years old uncle has to learn how to use Zoom. We have learned a great deal how to use the

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technology to interact with people. And I truly believe that this this internet world, can be better, but it take practice. Sometimes the interaction we-

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we both sides are lack of practice and couldn't really interact as much as in person. And I hope to be able to see this

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barrier be overcome, then we can always just talk on the computer. It will be, hopefully it will be as good a experience as in person, you know.

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Yeah definitely. And you touched briefly on my next question, like what would be our New Normal in your perspective?

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And you mentioned that there is technology going to take more part in our lives. What else do you see that is part of the new normal? Right, I really don't know how long it would take for the vaccine to come in.

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I think things can improve if we have a vaccine. Without a vaccine, I cannot see that we are able to really return.

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But even with a vaccine, I suspect we'll enter into– into a new normal. I spent 90 minutes a day commuting to Rice, you know, 40 minutes one way. It's a lot of time.

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So in that respect, I really am happy that I don't have to fight the traffic go to work. These 90 minutes I can use. I'm using it to exercise more.

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So they are certain things which is a good thing that even after the pandemic, maybe we can– maybe we can reduce the number of business travel.

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You know, business travel is a huge waste of time. But some, in the past you don't have a excuse you have to go. You have to go when the meeting is called.

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I hope this can be reduced a bit, so we can spend more time on our own, not wasting time. I can never imagine, you know, after

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911, the whole travel airport security has changed overnight because of 911. And until today, we are still doing

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the same kind of security. So I cannot see that when this virus pandemic is over. we would really go back to the old way of living.

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Probably something is going to change and hopefully it will change to the better. Yeah, we're very hopeful that it happens. That also regarding Houston, we are a

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very oil and gas focused city. Given, yeah, the current like impact from the economic side of things, do you see Houston's

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role in the globe and, like US, demo- demography will change in the future, given the oil and gas industry in um, kind of turmoil right now? Yeah, it's uh...

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my husband used to work for the oil and gas company, you know, almost everybody in Houston is one way or the other related to the oil industry. So we hope the... we don't want to change

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our lifestyle. But it may, it's hard to say it's hard, it's difficult to say. I suspect the oil industry would still sustain for- for

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20, 30 years, but eventually the electrical, the other kind of more global friendly energy may take hold. Hopefully it's not in the near future.

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We- we hope this is short term problem that Houston is facing, but it certainly is a painful thing for the, for a lot of our young, especially younger professionals

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who are in the oil industry. Right. Um, thank you for, for sharing that. And Dr. Kan, I'm just wondering, has this pass like months

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of events, for example, we haven't seen a lot of, kind of xenophobic attacks on Asian Americans in the early like, late February or early March, during the pandemic. And also later on in June, we had the death of the

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George Floyd happening to kind of instigate more racial division among our society. Have you or, you've been in, some kind have been inspiring or some

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debates, that's worth sharing? Or your perspectives that you're willing to share on these incidents? Yeah, I didn't go out much

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the last two, three months. So I personally didn't have much experience. But the ... just a, just a example.

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A friend of mine went to Trader Joe's. He gave– he gave a tip to homeless as Trader— in front of Trader Joe's. And this homeless asked him about Chinese and

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virus, you know. So I think that that kind of talk about linking China to the virus. I don't think it's a helpful thing.

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It is, you know, the virus is as nature as anything else, is like a tomato in the garden. When it come, it comes. It's not related to people.

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I can, I can find my past experience, I can certainly agree I may hit some of these unpleasant events if I go out everyday. For this incident, I didn't.

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And I think Houston city itself is quite— very diverse. I really like Houston. I think within the city limit,

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perhaps it's a little bit better. It's really unfortunate for what happened to George Floyd. And we grew up

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when Vincent Chin was killed in Michigan because of this racial violence. And 40 years later, we are still dealing with similar kind of and their

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thing. I think we need to improve, you know. Eventually this world is getting smaller and smaller because of transportation, because of

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communication. We all live here together. We shouldn't create prejudice based of— based on race. Yeah. Definitely. And I really like the metaphor about tomato growing the garden.

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Yeah, there's the force of nature that we cannot undo. So, I was just wondering, next, what is your kind of perspective on how the

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next generation will tackle like all these social inequity issues? And whether... how they can see the kind of pandemic being a little bit more prone

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to those people who are in poverty, like the social inequity and the pandemic, kind of adding to one another. Yeah. Yeah, it is really, really sad to see that the poor was getting hit, unproportionally

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high, because they are lack of medical, uh, support. I think the young

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people can, probably, maybe this is your opportunity to be able to do something. We are approaching retirement age and not so much we can help.

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But that really this world is one world and we just hope that the racial division and has– has to come down. If we– if we don't help people in Africa with their diseases,

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I'm sure, this pandemic is going to hit Africa or the other poor country more than us, even though we don't care much about it. But if it's– if

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there is a place that is hitted hard, none of us can escape. This disease will have to spread. So we just have

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to take care of everybody. That's my personal opinion. We do have to take care of everybody. Maybe the first thing we should look at is the poor people in the United States.

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Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Dr. Kan. And just my last question, and hopefully to end it on an optimistic note. What is the first thing you're gonna do when the vaccine has come out and it's safe

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to go back to our normal lives? I have so many things I want to do. I think the smaller thing will be go to the restaurant and the big thing would be to travel again.

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I hope Egypt is not the last place and then that I really enjoyed it. That's amazing place, unfortunately tarnished by this event. Well thank you so much, Dr.

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Kan for your time, and your inspiring notes. And thank you for taking care of everyone in this some pandemic by wearing masks and taking precautions needed.

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I thank you for the opportunity to, to say a few words about this event and I really appreciate the all the support I have received when I was sick.

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You know the university, Rice is doing a very good job. And the county, they take care of us really well. And I just hope that we will go back to a semi normal life

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pretty soon for everybody. But before we get that we still have to take care of business, yeah. Ok.