2020年经济学人 健康数据与隐私(1)

Science & technology

科技

Health data and privacy

健康数据与隐私

The pandemic has sparked a new way to study sensitive medical records

大流行引发了一种研究敏感病历的新方法

On may 7th an article appeared on medRxiv, an online repository for medical research.

5月7日，医学研究在线资源库medRxiv上发表了一篇文章。

It showed, for England at least, the degrees to which sars-cov-2, the virus that causes covid-19, discriminates¹ in its deadliness between various groups of people.

该研究显示，至少对英国来说，covid-19的sars-cov-2病毒在不同人群中的致死率差别有多大。

Men are more likely to die than women. The old and the socially deprived more likely than the young, well-off and well-connected.

男性比女性更容易死亡。老年人和社会贫困人群比年轻人、富人和有良好关系的人更可能死亡。

Those with uncontrolled diabetes² or severe asthma³, more likely than those without.

糖尿病和严重哮喘患者比没有糖尿病和严重哮喘的患者患病的几率更大。

And members of the country’s ethnic⁴ minorities more likely than those of its white majority.

与占人口多数的白人相比，美国的少数民族成员更有可能患病。

None of these, even the first (for men are more vulnerable than women to quite a wide range of infections), is exactly a surprise.

所有这些，甚至是第一点(因为男性比女性更容易受到各种各样的感染)，都不足为奇。

Even the finding that current smokers⁵ actually have a lower risk of death from the illness than do non-smokers, though superficially arresting,

吸烟人士死于新冠肺炎的风险低于不吸烟的人，虽然这个发现表面上很引人注目，

is in line with the results of other studies that used different methods—though a possible protective effect on asthma patients of steroid inhalers looks worth following up.

但它也与使用不同方法的其他研究结果一致——尽管吸入类固醇可能对哮喘患者起到保护作用还值得进一步探讨。

But the actual results of this study are not really the remarkable⁶ thing about it.

但是这项研究的实际结果并不是其特别之处。

That, according to its lead author Ben Goldacre, a clinician and data scientist at the University of Oxford⁷, is the method of analysis by which they were obtained.

根据该研究的主要作者、牛津大学的临床医生和数据科学家本·戈尔达克尔的说法，其特别之处在于获得这些数据的分析方法。

Instead of extracting sensitive patient records from the databases of the company which manages them on behalf of general practitioners⁸ (gps, Britain’s network of family doctors),

该论文背后的团队并没有从代表全科医生(英国家庭医生网络)管理这些数据的公司的数据库中提取敏感的病人记录，

the team behind the paper developed a suite⁹ of software that lets them run their massive analysis on the data in situ.

而是开发了一套软件，让他们在现场对数据进行大规模分析。

1 discriminates   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的第三人称单数 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• The new law discriminates against lower-paid workers. 这条新法律歧视低工资的工人。
• One test governs state legislation that discriminates against interstate commerce. 一个检验约束歧视州际商业的州立法。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

2 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

3 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

4 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

5 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

8 practitioners   

n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师）

参考例句：

• one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
• The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的，但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句

9 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。