科学美国人60秒 SSS 帮助研究人员追踪新冠肺炎（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Bob Hirshon.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是鲍勃·赫尔尚。

Getting a handle on how COVID-19 is spreading across the country is difficult, because current models are based on people who have been tested. Since tests for the disease are limited and not distributed evenly, there's no way to know quite how the disease is spreading. But now you can help solve this problem, thanks to researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard. Working with Google and other partners, they've introduced COVID Near You, a Web site where everyone can report on how they're feeling.

很难弄清楚新冠肺炎是如何在美国传播的，因为现有模型的基础是已检测人群。由于对这种疾病的检测有限且分布不均，我们无法确切了解该疾病的扩散方式。但多亏哈佛大学波士顿儿童医院的研究人员，现在你可以帮助解决这个问题了。他们与谷歌和其他合作伙伴联合推出“你附近的新冠肺炎”网站，每个人都可以在上面报告自己的感受。

"Capturing on-the-ground information in real time from the public really can give us a sense of what's happening at the community level. And it also gives the public an opportunity to contribute back to public health."

“从公众那里实时获取地面信息，确实可以让我们了解社区一级的情况。这也给予了公众回馈公共卫生的机会。”

That's Kara Sewalk at Boston Children's Hospital. She's program manager for COVID Near You. She says your input goes into a national map that updates constantly, showing exactly how the disease is progressing.

波士顿儿童医院的卡拉·西沃克说到。她是“你附近的新冠肺炎”网站的项目经理。她表示，你的输入会进入不断更新的国家地图，准确显示疾病的进展情况。

"This type of data will be useful in terms of predictive modeling of understanding where potential hotspots currently exist or could exist in the next few weeks to few months—to however long the outbreak continues."

“这类数据将有助于预测建模，以了解目前哪里有潜在热点，或未来几周几年即疫情爆发期间内哪里可能有潜在热点。”

The site is useful for the public as well.

这个网站对公众也很有用。

"We also really were inspired to create a tool where users can get an idea of COVID-related symptoms in their local area. We want users to learn about potential areas that could be highly affected by this pandemic. And I think it gives an opportunity to see what's happening at the national scale, too, from symptom-recorded data from others just like them across the U.S."

“我们的确也受到启发，并创造了一种工具，使用户可以了解当地新冠肺炎的相关症状。我们希望用户了解这场疫情可能高度影响的潜在地区。我认为这也给了我们一个机会，使我们得以通过查看全美与自己类似的人的症状记录，了解全国范围内的情况。”

Participating is easy: just go to theWeb site COVIDNearYou.org and let them know if you're feeling great or sick. If you're not feeling well, they have a few follow-up questions.

参与方法很简单：只要登录COVIDNearYou.org网站，告诉他们你感觉很好还是不舒服。如果你感觉不舒服，他们会有一些后续提问。

"And we also want users to continually report in. It's helpful to have people come back to the Web site week after week to continue to report in symptoms that they may or may not be experiencing. Even if you're healthy, that type of information is extremely valuable for us to know. So that's why we created a feature where users can actually submit their phone number to receive text reminders to continue to report their health status."

“我们也希望用户持续报告情况。这有助于人们一周接一周地回到网站，继续报告他们可能体验或可能不会体验的症状。即使你很健康，这类信息也极度值得了解。因此我们创建了一个专区，用户可以在此提交手机号码，接收继续报告健康状况的短信提醒。”

It takes only a minute each week to help researchers track COVID-19. If you want to check it out, go to COVIDnearyou.org. That's C-O-V-I-D nearyou.org.

每周只需一分钟就能帮助研究人员追踪新冠肺炎。如果你想查看，请登录COVIDnearyou.org网站。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Bob Hirshon.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是鲍勃·赫尔尚。