MASKED HERO

An undersung public-health hero gets his due.

The mother and daughter co-authors, both descendants of their subject, trace the course of Wu’s career. He grew up with 10 siblings in a busy neighborhood populated by residents of Chinese and Indian descent in British-ruled Malaysia (then Malaya). Following medical training in Great Britain and a return to Malaysia (where he had trouble finding an official post due to racial discrimination), he accompanied a rescue mission to Harbin, a city in northeastern China whose Chinese and Russian residents had been struck by black plague. Thanks to quarantine measures and a multilayered face mask he developed (which met with resistance from racist fellow doctors), the outbreak was suppressed within a few months. He went on to become the first person of Chinese descent to earn a Nobel Prize nomination. That style of mask was widely used in both the flu epidemic of 1918 and, having evolved into the N95 mask, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It remains one of our least expensive, most effective measures against contagions: “When we wear a mask to stop a disease,” the co-authors conclude, “we are all heroes.” They deftly cast light on medical issues and the racism Wu faced, drawing parallels between past and present. In the generic, stylized illustrations, Wu stands out for his large black glasses and air of smiling confidence.

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