Google honours Chinese-Malaysian face mask pioneer Doctor Wu Lien-teh, whose surgical face covering is seen as origin of N95
- Google Doodle is an artistic alteration of the logo on Google’s homepages on special dates to commemorate holidays, events, and notable historical figures
- Other prominent Asians Google has celebrated include Anna May Wong, Masako Katsura, and Salom
Wu invented the surgical face mask, considered to be the precursor to the N95 mask in response to the Manchurian plague which spread in northwestern China in 1910, according to a biography on Google’s website.
“Wear a mask. Save lives,” the latest Google Doodle wrote on its page.
Two years after his appointment in 1908 as vice director for China’s Imperial Army Medical College, Wu was appointed by the Chinese government to investigate the then unknown plague that had spread from human to human through respiratory transmission.
Wu designed and produced a special surgical mask with cotton and gauze, adding several layers of cloth to filter inhalations. He advised people to wear his newly invented mask and restrict travel while also using progressive sterilisation techniques. The surgeon also worked with governments to establish quarantine stations and hospitals.
More than a century on, during the global Covid-19 pandemic, the medical community is advising the same precautions be taken.
