On Mar. 6, 2020, University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers Yue Qian, Dr. Richard Lester, Dr. Srinivas Murthy, Natalie Prystajecky and Dr. Mel Krajden were principal investigators of teams collectively received more than $2.8 million in grants from the federal government to study COVID-19.

The funding was focused on accelerating the development, testing, and implementation of measures to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Qian and her team, which included co-investigator and UBC sociologist Amy Hanser, are received $400,468 for their proposed project to study the human experiences and mental health consequences of quarantine.