As the coronavirus pandemic continued to worsen in the Spring of 2020, Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba reached out to Dr. Ajlan Al Zaki to thank him for his commitment to helping others who suffered from the extremely contagious and potentially deadly disease. An Emirati national studying at Stanford University Hospital, Dr. Al Zaki chose to remain in California to attend to those affected by COVID-19 rather than returning home to Abu Dhabi.