时代周刊:疫苗接种问题重重(1)

NO TIME TO LOSE

争分夺秒

IS THE U.S. BLOWING ITS BEST CHANCE AT MASS VACCINATION¹ BEFORE THE VIRUS ASSERTS ITS DOMINANCE?

在新冠夺主之前，美国是否已经失去了大规模接种疫苗的最佳机会？

TWENTY MILLION. That was The number of Americans who were supposed to be vaccinated² against COVID-19 by now. Instead, just under 5 million people have received a shot, and 17 million doses have been shipped to the states and other jurisdictions³ that are distributing them to hospitals, doctors and pharmacies⁴. "There is a complete lack of federal leadership, and it's just horrifying," says Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the CDC. "We heard, 'It's our job as Operation Warp⁵ Speed to deliver vaccines⁷ to states. Then it's their job from there.' But that's not how public health works in the U.S."

2000万。这是目前应该接种COVID-19疫苗的美国人的人数。相反，只有不到500万人接种了疫苗，1700万剂疫苗被运往各州和其他司法管辖区，并被分发给医院、医生和药店。“联邦政府完全没有领导能力，这太可怕了。”前疾控中心主任汤姆·弗里登博士说。“我们听说‘我们的工作是向各州运送疫苗，之后就是他们的工作了。’但这不是美国公共卫生的运作方式。”

QQ截图20210205170846_副本.png

As it is, state and local health departments are struggling to implement⁸ an unprecedented⁹ massvaccination program while also managing a surge in new COVID-19 cases—some 200,000 daily for many days in December and January—and record-breaking numbers of hospitalizations. Shrinking budgets have left some states scrambling¹⁰ to find the staff and expertise¹¹ needed to stand up a complex system of receiving, storing, distributing, tracking and administering vaccine⁶ doses, not to mention educating the public about the shots and monitoring for side effects. "Early on, there was talk at the federal level that states don't need money, they are like pass-throughs for this stuff; it's going to be the health care systems that are going to do the vaccinating," says Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious diseases at Minnesota's department of health. "States and localities have a really, really big lift."

目前，州和地方卫生部门正努力实施一项前所未有的大规模疫苗接种计划，同时也在应对新冠肺炎新增病例激增(去年12月和今年1月的许多天里每天增加约20万例)和创纪录的住院人数。预算缩减使得一些州忙于寻找所需的人员和专业知识，以建立一个接收、储存、分发、跟踪和注射疫苗的复杂系统，更不用说教育公众关于疫苗注射和监测副作用了。“一开始，联邦层面上有传言说各州不需要钱，他们只是为这些东西转手，疫苗接种将由卫生保健系统来完成。明尼苏达州卫生部门传染病部主任克里斯·埃勒斯曼说。“各州和地方都有非常非常大的提升。”

Some of the shortfall may be a reporting lag as states learn new tracking systems, but there clearly are real problems. In Texas, data-entry issues led officials to overestimate¹² the number of available doses, leaving unvaccinated many health care workers in the first group of eligible¹³ people who wanted the shot. Health officials in Lee County, Florida, decided¹⁴ to do without an online appointment system and offer limited vaccines on a first-come, first-served basis, which prompted elderly people to wait overnight, some up to seven hours, to get their shots.

一些短缺可能是由于各州学习新的跟踪系统造成的报告滞后，但显然存在真正的问题。在德克萨斯州，由于数据输入问题，官员们高估了可用的疫苗剂量，导致许多没有接种疫苗的卫生保健工作者成为第一批有资格接种疫苗的人。佛罗里达州李县的卫生官员决定不使用网上预约系统，以先到先得的方式提供有限的疫苗，这导致老年人为了接种疫苗需要通宵等候，有些人要等上7个小时。

1 vaccination   

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。

2 vaccinated   

[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？

3 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

4 pharmacies   

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

5 warp   

vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见

参考例句：

• The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
• A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。

6 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

7 vaccines   

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。

8 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

9 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

10 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

12 overestimate   

v.估计过高，过高评价

参考例句：

• Don't overestimate seriousness of the problem.别把问题看重了。
• We overestimate our influence and our nuisance value.我们过高地估计了自己的影响力和破坏作用。

13 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

14 decided   

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。