国家地理:为了结束这场流行病 我们必须相信科学()（在线收听）

Science on the frontier always exposes how little is known, even by the putative experts, so these phone calls made it clear to me how far we have to go. Still, it was nice to hear that a lot of scientists were looking for answers.

尖端科学总会揭露出我们所知甚少，即使是公认的专家也一样，因此这几通电话让我明白我们要走的路还有多长。尽管如此，听到许多科学家正在寻求解答仍是一件很棒的事。

"It's been amazing to see how people are using their talents and gifts to address this," Gregg Gonsalves, co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University, told me. "People all want to do something," even if their training is in law, geography, anthropology, fine arts, or similarly far-flung fields.

“看到人们是如何运用才能与天赋面对这件事，真的令人感到惊奇。”耶鲁大学全球卫生正义伙伴计划的共同主持人格雷格·贡萨尔维斯告诉我。“每个人都想做点什么，”即使他们学的是法律、地理、人类学、美术或类似的不太相关的领域。

All that research focus has led to a remarkable amount of information in a remarkably short time. Within weeks of the first known animal-to-human transmission, scientists had sequenced the virus's full genome. By summertime, more than 270 potential COVID-19 drugs were in active clinical trials in the United States. As for the quest for the holy grail, a vaccine, an international phalanx of researchers from the U.S., China, Great Britain, India, Germany, Spain, Canada, Thailand, and elsewhere had identified more than 165 candidates by early August. Progress was so rapid that even a hyper-realist like Fauci -- who tends to emphasize how important it is to conduct large-scale clinical trials before introducing new drugs -- has said he is "cautiously optimistic" that a vaccine could be available early next year. If he's right -- oh please, oh please, let him be right -- that would be three years faster than the fastest vaccine development in history.

所有研究都有共同聚焦，使得在极短时间内已有极可观的信息量。在动物传人首例通报后的数周内，科学家就已经将病毒的全基因组定序完成。到了夏天，已有超过270种有潜力的COVID-19药物在美国进行临床试验。至于众人殷切追寻的终极目标：疫苗，由美国、中国、英国、印度、德国、西班牙、加拿大、泰国和其他地方研究者组成的国际团队，在8月初时已经找出超过165支候选疫苗。进展如此迅速，就连福奇这么超级务实的人（他往往会强调在新药上市前先进行大规模临床试验有多么重要）都表示，他对于明年初就有疫苗可用“抱持审慎乐观的态度。”如果他是对的--喔，拜托、拜托，希望他是对的--那就会比历史上最快的疫苗研发还快了三年。