2020年经济学人 流行病威胁下世界经济的良药(1)

Leaders

来源于3月7日刊《社论》版块

The right medicine for the world economy

世界经济的良药

The pandemic threatens an economic crisis as well as a health crisis. Both need fixing

流行病威胁着经济危机和健康危机。两者都需要解决

It is not a fair fight, but it is a fight that many countries will face all the same. Left to itself, thecovid-19 pandemic doubles every five to six days. When you get your next issue of TheEconomist the outbreak could in theory have infected twice as many people as today. Governments can slow that ferocious¹ pace, but bureaucratic² time is not the same as virustime. And at the moment governments across the world are being left flat-footed.

这场战斗并不公平，但这场战斗许多国家都终将面对。如果任其发展，每过5到6天，covid-19流行病就会扩大一倍。当你看到下一期《经济学家》杂志时，疫情爆发理论上感染的人数可能是今天的两倍。政府可以放慢这一惊人的速度，但政府举措没有跟上病毒发展速度。

The disease is in 85 countries and territories, up from 50 a week earlier. Over 95,000 cases and 3,200 deaths have been recorded. Yet our analysis, based on patterns of travel to and fromChina, suggests that many countries which have spotted³ tens of cases have hundreds morecirculating undetected. Iran, South Korea and Italy are exporting the virus. America hasregistered 159 cases in 14 states but as of March 1st it had, indefensibly, tested just 472 people when South Korea was testing 10,000 a day. Now that America is looking, it is sure tofind scores of infections—and possibly unearth⁴ a runaway⁵ epidemic⁶.

目前已有85个国家和地区出现这种疾病，而一周前只有50个。记录在案的病例超过9.5万例，死亡3200例。然而，我们基于来往中国的旅行模式进行的分析表明，许多国家已经发现了数十例，还有数百例在未被发现的情况下传播。伊朗、韩国和意大利都在输出病毒。美国已经在14个州登记了159例病例，但截至3月1日，美国仅对472人进行了检测，而韩国当时每天检测1万人。现在美国正在寻找，肯定会发现大量的感染，并可能发展为失控的流行病。

Wherever the virus takes hold, containing it and mitigating⁷ its effects will involve more thandoctors and paramedics. The World Health Organisation⁸ has distilled⁹ lessons from China for howhealth-care systems should cope. The same thinking is needed across the government, especially over how to protect people and companies as supply chains fracture and theworried and the ill shut themselves away.

无论病毒在哪里出现，遏制病毒并减轻其影响不仅仅只有医护人员就行了。世界卫生组织已经从中国身上总结出应对卫生保健体系的经验教训。整个政府都需要同样的思考，尤其是在供应链断裂、忧虑者和患者之际，如何为个人和企业提供保护。

1 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

2 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

3 spotted   

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。

4 unearth   

v.发掘，掘出，从洞中赶出

参考例句：

• Most of the unearth relics remain intact.大多数出土文物仍保持完整无损。
• More human remains have been unearthed in the north.北部又挖掘出了更多的人体遗骸。

5 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

6 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

7 mitigating   

v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Are there any mitigating circumstances in this case ? 本案中是否有任何情况可以减轻被告的罪行？ 来自辞典例句
• A sentencing judge is required to consider any mitigating circumstances befor imposing the death penalty. 在处死刑之前，要求量刑法官必须考虑是否有任何减轻罪行之情节。 来自口语例句

8 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

9 distilled   

adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• The televised interview was distilled from 16 hours of film. 那次电视采访是从16个小时的影片中选出的精华。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gasoline is distilled from crude oil. 汽油是从原油中提炼出来的。 来自《简明英汉词典》