新闻周刊:新冠对世界的影响空前绝后(1)（在线收听）

From TECH & SCIENCE

来自科技板块

Four Surprising Ways COVID Changed the World a Year Into the Pandemic

一年的时间，新冠肺炎以四种令人惊讶的方式改变世界

BY ED BROWNE

作者：埃德·布朗

On March 11, 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak was officially declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO),

2020年3月11日，世界卫生组织正式宣布新冠疫情为大流行病。

more than a month after the first case was discovered in the U.S.

而就在一个多月之前，首例新冠确诊病例发现于美国。

The world has been significantly changed over the course of the past year and in a number of ways.

在过去一年中，世界的许多方面都发生了重大变化。

Some of the changes were immediate.

一些变化是瞬发的。

Unemployment rose and businesses suffered.

失业率上升，企业蒙受损失。

But some are yet to be properly felt.

但有些变化还没有被实际感知到。

Newsweek has compiled some standout figures.

《新闻周刊》收集了一些突出的数字。

'Green' recovery

“绿色”复苏

It may not come as a surprise that the pandemic resulted in a marked slowdown in greenhouse gas emissions due to a halt in industrial production and transportation.

由于工业生产和运输的停止，新冠疫情致使温室气体排放明显放缓，这样的变化或许并不令人意外。

Such emissions are thought to have been slashed by 25 percent over a period of a couple of months in China, according to CarbonBrief.

据CarbonBrief称，中国的温室气体排放量在几个月的时间里削减了25%。

However, researchers expected such environmental benefits would be temporary.

然而，研究人员预计这种环境效益将是暂时的。

With large economies desperate to recover from COVID-induced downturns,

由于大型经济体迫切希望从新冠引发的衰退中复苏，

many are pouring money into industries that are not green and will instead continue to reinforce pollution.

许多经济体正在向不环保的行业投入资金，而这些行业将继续加剧污染。

A report led by Oxford's Economic Recovery Project and the U.N. Environment Programme published on March 10 found that

牛津大学经济复苏项目和联合国环境规划署3月10日发表的一份报告发现，

only 18 percent of the recovery spending announced by leading economies can be considered "green."

主要经济体宣布的复苏支出中，只有18%可以被视为“绿色”

This amounted to $341 billion in "green" recovery spending out of $14.6 trillion spent elsewhere.

“绿色”复苏支出总计3410亿美元，而其他支出总计14.6万亿美元。

Only $28.9 billion was put into research and development of green technologies,

绿色技术研发投入仅289亿美元，

while around $66.1 billion put into low-carbon energy was largely thanks to Spanish and German subsidies.

而低碳能源投入的约661亿美元主要得益于西班牙和德国的补贴。

Brian O'Callaghan, lead researcher at the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project and the report's author said:

牛津大学经济复苏项目首席研究员及报告作者布莱恩·奥卡拉汉表示：

"Despite positive steps towards a sustainable COVID-19 recovery from a few leading nations,

“尽管一些主要国家为实现可持续的新冠复苏采取了积极举措，

the world has so far fallen short of matching aspirations to build back better."

但迄今为止，世界的现状离建设得更好的愿景还相去甚远。”

Vaccine development

疫苗开发

The development of the COVID vaccine was the fastest a vaccine has ever been created.

新冠疫苗的研制是疫苗研发史上最快的。

Scientists went from identifying a new pathogen to rolling out a vaccine for it in less than 12 months.

科学家们从发现一种新的病原体，到推出一种疫苗，历时不到12个月。

Prior to that, the fastest vaccine to go from development to deployment was the mumps vaccine in the 1960s, and that took four years.

在此之前，从研制到部署最快的疫苗是20世纪60年代的腮腺炎疫苗，这一过程历时4年。

In what may be one positive outcome from the pandemic,

此次疫情的一个积极结果是，

the experience of producing the COVID vaccine could have far-reaching changes for the future of vaccine research.

生产新冠疫苗的经验可能对疫苗研究的未来产生深远的影响。

Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, told the journal Nature:

马萨诸塞州波士顿哈佛医学院病毒学和疫苗研究中心主任丹·巴鲁克对《自然》杂志说：

"It shows how fast vaccine development can proceed when there is a true global emergency and sufficient resource.

“这表明，当全球出现真正的紧急情况时，疫苗的研发在资源充足的情况下能以多快的速度进行。

It has shown that the development process can be accelerated substantially without compromising on safety."

这表明，在不影响安全的情况下，开发过程可以大大加快。”

This is not a cause for complacency.

这不是自满的理由。

While the vaccine was developed very quickly, the groundwork for a novel coronavirus vaccine had already been laid years before COVID-19 was even named.

虽然疫苗的研发非常迅速，但在新冠肺炎被命名之前，新型冠状病毒疫苗的基础工作已经进行了好几年。

Scientists had been studying other coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS,

科学家们之前一直在研究其他冠状病毒，如非典型肺炎（SARS）和中东呼吸综合征（MERS），

while research into the mRNA vaccine platform that is being used in the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines had been going on for several years.

而辉瑞和BioNTech疫苗中使用的mRNA疫苗平台的研究已经进行了几年。

Five years ago, the technology would not have been ready, according to Nature.

据《自然》杂志报道，五年前，这项技术还没有准备好。

Luckily, it had matured since.

幸运的是，它已经成熟了。