在线英语听力室

科学美国人60秒 COVID 克服大流行的推动力

时间:2022-06-09 02:47:02

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

The Push to Move Past the Pandemic: COVID Quickly

COVID 克服大流行的推动力

Tanya Lewis: Hi, and welcome to COVID, Quickly, a Scientific American podcast series.

Josh Fischman: This is your fast-track update on the COVID pandemic. We bring you up to speed on the science behind the most urgent questions about the virus and the disease. We demystify the research and help you understand what it really means.

Tanya Lewis:您好,欢迎收看美国科学播客系列《COVID, Quickly》。

Josh Fischman:这是您对 COVID 大流行的快速更新。 我们让您快速了解有关病毒和疾病的最紧迫问题背后的科学。 我们揭开研究的神秘面纱,并帮助您了解它的真正含义。

Lewis: I’m Tanya Lewis.

Fischman: I’m Josh Fischman.

刘易斯:我是坦尼娅·刘易斯。

菲施曼:我是乔什·菲施曼。

Lewis: And we’re Scientific American’s senior health editors.

Today, we’ll explain the new official methods to determine if you’re in a pandemic safe zone or danger area…

刘易斯:我们是《科学美国人》的高级健康编辑。

今天,我们将解释新的官方方法来确定您是否处于流行病安全区或危险区……

Fischman: Then we’ll discuss what other pandemics looked like when they were ending—and whether this one, at long last, is heading down a similar path.

Fischman:然后我们将讨论其他流行病结束时的样子——以及这次流行病是否最终会走上类似的道路。

Lewis: The map of the U.S. shifted last week. Or at least the map of COVID danger did. Suddenly a lot of hazardous1 regions were deemed safer. What happened, Josh? Did COVID disappear?

刘易斯:上周美国的地图发生了变化。 或者至少 COVID 危险地图确实如此。 突然间,许多危险区域被认为更安全。 发生了什么事,乔什? 新冠病毒消失了吗?

Fischman: It was a weird2 moment, Tanya. And no, COVID hasn’t gone away. But last Friday morning people looked at an official Centers for Disease Control map showing much of the nation was in high risk areas. And the next day that map showed about 60 percent of the US was really at low or medium risk. And people in those areas didn’t need to wear a mask.

Fischman:这是一个奇怪的时刻,Tanya。 不,COVID并没有消失。 但上周五早上,人们查看了疾病控制中心的官方地图,显示该国大部分地区处于高风险地区。 第二天,这张地图显示,美国大约 60% 的地区确实处于低风险或中等风险。 这些地区的人们不需要戴口罩。

What happened was three things. One, now we have more tools to keep people safer, such as vaccinations4 and new antiviral drugs. Two, we are seeing fewer infections as we slide down from the scary Omicron wave. (Though about 2,000 Americans are still dying every day, and none of us should tolerate that level of death.)

发生了三件事。 一,现在我们有更多的工具来保证人们的安全,比如疫苗和新的抗病毒药物。 第二,随着我们从可怕的 Omicron 浪潮中滑落,我们看到的感染减少了。

And three, because of the first two, the CDC decided5 to recalculate how it measured COVID risk. That’s what changed the map.

In the old scheme, the agency used only case counts in a particular county. 100 cases or more per 100,000 meant high risk of virus transmission, and the CDC said people in those places should wear masks.

第三,由于前两个原因,CDC 决定重新计算其衡量 COVID 风险的方式。 这就是改变地图的原因。

在旧计划中,该机构仅使用特定县的病例数。 每 10 万人中有 100 例或更多病例意味着病毒传播的高风险,疾病预防控制中心表示,这些地方的人们应该戴口罩。

The new scheme shifts the calculation to measures of severe disease. It emphasizes the number of new hospital admissions and how much of a hospital is filled with existing COVID patients. And it still includes case counts. But it ups the levels for high risk to 200 for every 100,000 people.

The agency has a tracker where you can check whether your community is at low, medium or high risk.

新方案将计算转移到严重疾病的测量上。 它强调了新入院的人数以及医院中有多少现有的 COVID 患者。 它仍然包括病例数。 但它将高风险水平提高到每 100,000 人 200 人。

该机构有一个跟踪器,您可以在其中检查您的社区是否处于低、中或高风险。

Public health experts generally applauded the move. People can usually deal with mild illness. But getting sick enough for an emergency trip to the hospital is what everyone wants to avoid. Also we need to stop overwhelming the health care system with COVID patients.

Case counts rise ahead of hospitalizations, so keeping them in the mix provides communities with early warnings.

公共卫生专家普遍对此举表示赞赏。 人们通常可以应对轻微的疾病。 但是,每个人都想避免病得足以紧急去医院。 此外,我们需要停止让 COVID 患者压倒医疗保健系统。

病例数在住院之前就上升了,因此将它们混合在一起可以为社区提供早期预警。

If a community rises to high risk, the new guidelines explain how to dial up protection measures, says Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Masks should go back on, and people should stay out of buildings with poor ventilation, and there should be a push for more vaccinations and booster shots. When the warning indicators6 drop, measures can be dialed back down.

休斯顿德克萨斯大学健康科学中心的流行病学家凯特琳·杰特琳娜 (Katelyn Jetelina) 说,如果一个社区出现高风险,新指南将解释如何加强保护措施。 应该重新戴上口罩,人们应该远离通风不良的建筑物,应该推动更多的疫苗接种和加强注射。 当警告指标下降时,可以调回措施。

However, Jetelina is unhappy about the 200 cases allowed before a community moves to high risk. With people getting long COVID, and only about a quarter of children aged7 5 through 11 fully8 vaccinated9, she thinks this level of transmission is still unsafe.

And if more people go without masks, with even a moderate transmission rate in their area, it endangers people with weakened immune systems.

然而,Jetelina 对在社区转移到高风险之前允许的 200 例病例感到不满。 随着人们感染新冠病毒的时间越来越长,并且只有大约四分之一的 5 到 11 岁的儿童完全接种了疫苗,她认为这种传播水平仍然不安全。

如果更多人不戴口罩,即使他们所在地区的传播率中等,也会危及免疫系统较弱的人。

But the US wants to push towards pre-pandemic normal, and government policies are following that line. This week the White House announced a series of plans for getting there while COVID stays around. There will be “test and treat” facilities at local pharmacies10 and community centers, where people can get rapid tests and antiviral medications.

但美国希望推动大流行前的常态,而政府的政策也在遵循这条路线。 本周,白宫宣布了一系列计划,以便在 COVID 流行期间到达那里。 当地药店和社区中心将设有“检测和治疗”设施,人们可以在那里获得快速检测和抗病毒药物。

The government wants to step up surveillance for new waves with expanded wastewater testing sites – virus surges can be spotted11 this way. It also plans to look more aggressively for new variants13, with more genetic14 testing facilities.

政府希望通过扩大废水检测站点来加强对新浪潮的监测——通过这种方式可以发现病毒激增。 它还计划更积极地寻找新的变种,配备更多的基因检测设施。

J: What’s up to each of us, it now seems, is how to respond when one of these early warning flags goes up. And they will: the virus is now a part of our world. Will we dial up protections such as masks and boosters to stop the spread?

That’s clearly the response that government policymakers are banking15 on. And people did that early in the pandemic. But going back to more restricted lives may not sit well with Americans today.

J:现在看来,我们每个人都需要在这些预警信号之一升起时如何应对。 他们会的:病毒现在是我们世界的一部分。 我们会拨打口罩和助推器等防护措施来阻止传播吗?

这显然是政府决策者所指望的回应。 人们在大流行初期就这样做了。 但回到更受限制的生活可能并不适合今天的美国人。

Fischman: Speaking of getting back to normal, you interviewed some historians about how pandemics end. What can we learn from previous pandemics about the end game for COVID?

Lewis: It’s a fascinating question. I talked to John Barry, the historian and author of “The Great Influenza16: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history.” The book is an exhaustively reported history of the 1918 influenza, which is believed to have killed at least 50 million people worldwide, and nearly 700,000 in the U.S. alone.

Fischman:谈到恢复正常,您采访了一些历史学家,了解大流行是如何结束的。 我们可以从以前的流行病中学到什么关于 COVID 的最终游戏?

刘易斯:这是一个有趣的问题。 我与历史学家、《大流感:历史上最致命的流行病的故事》一书的作者约翰·巴里进行了交谈。 这本书详尽地报道了 1918 年流感的历史,据信该流感已导致全球至少 5000 万人死亡,仅在美国就有近 700,000 人死亡。

I asked Barry how he would define the end of a pandemic, and he said, basically, the point at which people stop paying attention to it. That seems to be happening already in many places. There is also a scientific component17 to it—when the virus is causing less severe disease, and when there is ready access to vaccines18 and therapeutics.

我问巴里,他将如何定义大流行的结束,他说,基本上,是人们停止关注它的那一点。 这似乎已经在很多地方发生了。 它还有一个科学组成部分——当病毒引起不太严重的疾病时,以及当疫苗和治疗方法可用时。

For COVID, we’re almost at that point, Barry says, but we don’t yet have widespread availability of treatments like Pfizer’s antiviral, Paxlovid. Ultimately, though, the end of a pandemic is more of a human decision than a biological one. “We’ve clearly wearied as a society,” Barry told me. But there’s a danger in dropping all precautions too early.

Barry 说,对于 COVID,我们几乎到了那个地步,但我们还没有像辉瑞公司的抗病毒药物 Paxlovid 这样的广泛可用的治疗方法。 但最终,大流行的结束更多是人类的决定,而不是生物学的决定。 “作为一个社会,我们显然已经厌倦了,”巴里告诉我。 但过早放弃所有预防措施存在危险。

Most histories of the 1918 pandemic describe it as having three waves: in the spring of 1918, the fall of 1918, and the winter and spring of 1919, finally subsiding19 in the summer of that year. But in fact, a new flu variant12 emerged in 1920 that caused a fourth wave that was in some places worse than previous waves, Barry says.

1918 年大流行的大多数历史都将其描述为三波:1918 年春季、1918 年秋季和 1919 年冬春季,最后在当年夏季消退。 但事实上,1920 年出现了一种新的流感变种,它引发了第四波,在某些地方比前一波更严重,巴里说。

Most of the U.S. put in place restrictions20 during the second wave, and some did for the third. But by the fourth peak in 1920, no cities imposed restrictions. Americans had moved on.

Eventually the disease became milder, in part because most people had some immunity21 to it from infection, but also because it lost the ability to infect cells in the lungs. There is no law of nature that says a virus has to evolve to be less virulent22, Barry says. But over time, our immune systems exerted pressure on the virus to make it harder to infect the lungs—similar to what we are seeing with the Omicron variant.

美国大部分地区在第二波期间实施了限制,有些在第三波期间实施了限制。 但到了 1920 年的第四个高峰,没有城市施加限制。 美国人继续前进。

最终,这种疾病变得更温和了,部分原因是大多数人对它有一定的免疫力,但也因为它失去了感染肺部细胞的能力。 巴里说,没有自然法则规定病毒必须进化为毒性较低。 但随着时间的推移,我们的免疫系统对病毒施加压力,使其更难感染肺部——类似于我们在 Omicron 变体中看到的情况。

Right now, Barry is optimistic. COVID cases have fallen dramatically, and most people have some immunity from vaccination3, infection, or both. But that doesn’t mean every variant will be mild. There were severe upticks in the flu death toll23 well after the 1918 pandemic, such as in 1928. Viral evolution is random24, so we shouldn’t let down our guard just yet, Barry says.

Ultimately, it won’t be the VIRUS that decides when this pandemic is over. It will be US.

现在,巴里很乐观。 COVID 病例急剧下降,大多数人对疫苗接种、感染或两者都有一定的免疫力。 但这并不意味着每个变体都是温和的。 巴里说,在 1918 年大流行之后很久,例如 1928 年,流感死亡人数急剧上升。病毒进化是随机的,所以我们现在不应该放松警惕。

最终,决定这场大流行何时结束的不会是病毒。 这将是美国。

Lewis: Now you’re up to speed. Thanks for joining us. Our show is edited by the inimitable Jeff DelViscio.

刘易斯:现在你已经跟上进度了。 感谢您加入我们。 我们的节目由无与伦比的 Jeff DelViscio 编辑。

Fischman: Come back in two weeks for the next episode of COVID, Quickly! And check out SciAm.com for updated and in-depth COVID news.

Fischman:请在两周后回来观看 COVID 的下一集,并查看 SciAm.com 以获取最新和深入的 COVID 新闻。


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 hazardous Iddxz     
adj.(有)危险的,冒险的;碰运气的
参考例句:
  • These conditions are very hazardous for shipping.这些情况对航海非常不利。
  • Everybody said that it was a hazardous investment.大家都说那是一次危险的投资。
2 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
3 vaccination bKGzM     
n.接种疫苗,种痘
参考例句:
  • Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
  • Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。
4 vaccinations ed61d339e2970fa63aee4b5ce757cc44     
n.种痘,接种( vaccination的名词复数 );牛痘疤
参考例句:
  • Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时,我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
6 indicators f46872fc1b5f08e9d32bd107be1df829     
(仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的)指针( indicator的名词复数 ); 指示物; (车辆上的)转弯指示灯; 指示信号
参考例句:
  • The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
  • It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。
7 aged 6zWzdI     
adj.年老的,陈年的
参考例句:
  • He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了,也老点了。
  • He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老,然而记忆力还好。
8 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
9 vaccinated 8f16717462e6e6db3389d0f736409983     
[医]已接种的,种痘的,接种过疫菌的
参考例句:
  • I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
  • Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗?
10 pharmacies a19950a91ea1800ed5273a89663d2855     
药店
参考例句:
  • Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
  • Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店,和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网
11 spotted 7FEyj     
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的
参考例句:
  • The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
  • Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。
12 variant GfuzRt     
adj.不同的,变异的;n.变体,异体
参考例句:
  • We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段,提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
  • In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种,是数据驱动的测试。
13 variants 796e0e5ff8114b13b2e23cde9d3c6904     
n.变体( variant的名词复数 );变种;变型;(词等的)变体
参考例句:
  • Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
  • Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样,病毒也有变种,一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句
14 genetic PgIxp     
adj.遗传的,遗传学的
参考例句:
  • It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
  • Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。
15 banking aySz20     
n.银行业,银行学,金融业
参考例句:
  • John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
  • He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。
16 influenza J4NyD     
n.流行性感冒,流感
参考例句:
  • They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
  • Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。
17 component epSzv     
n.组成部分,成分,元件;adj.组成的,合成的
参考例句:
  • Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
  • Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。
18 vaccines c9bb57973a82c1e95c7cd0f4988a1ded     
疫苗,痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
  • The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。
19 subsiding 0b57100fce0b10afc440ec1d6d2366a6     
v.(土地)下陷(因在地下采矿)( subside的现在分词 );减弱;下降至较低或正常水平;一下子坐在椅子等上
参考例句:
  • The flooded river was subsiding rapidly. 泛滥的河水正在迅速退落。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Gradually the tension was subsiding, gradually the governor was relenting. 风潮渐渐地平息了。 来自汉英文学 - 家(1-26) - 家(1-26)
20 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
21 immunity dygyQ     
n.优惠;免除;豁免,豁免权
参考例句:
  • The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
  • He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。
22 virulent 1HtyK     
adj.有毒的,有恶意的,充满敌意的
参考例句:
  • She is very virulent about her former employer.她对她过去的老板恨之入骨。
  • I stood up for her despite the virulent criticism.尽管她遭到恶毒的批评,我还是维护她。
23 toll LJpzo     
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟)
参考例句:
  • The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
  • The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
24 random HT9xd     
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动
参考例句:
  • The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
  • On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查,发现肉变质了。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。