时代周刊:新冠疫情围堵阶段已经结束(1)（在线收听）

The Time for Containment is Over.

新冠疫情围堵阶段已经结束

By Alice Parker

文/爱丽丝·帕克尔

There comes a point in the unfolding of every epidemic

每一种流行病的传播都有

when public-health officials acknowledge that despite their best efforts, an invisible microbial foe has managed to outwit them.

公共卫生官员承认尽管他们已经全力以赴，来自微生物界的隐形对手还是比他们技高一筹这样一个临界点。

That time has come.

如今，这一临界点已然出现。

As cases of COVID-19 began to wane in early March in China,

从三月初开始，中国的新冠肺炎（COVID-19）病例便已开始减少，

there was a surge in new infections around the globe, from Iran to Italy, South Korea to the U.S.

然而，无论是从伊朗到意大利，还是从韩国到美国，世界其他国家的新增病例都在日渐增多。

Deaths also rose—the U.S. recorded its first coronavirus-related mortalities—

其他国家的死亡人数也有所上升——美国也出现了首个与冠状病毒相关的死亡病例——

and health officials warned that the disease has “pandemic potential.”

卫生官员已告诫称，该病具有“演变为大流行的可能”。

There are now more than 80,000 cases of COVID-19 infection in mainland China and nearly 13,000 outside the country,

目前，中国内地已有8万多例新冠感染病例，境外还有近1.3万例，

with the latter tally growing daily.

且后一数据每日都在上涨。

When the Chinese government took the unprecedented steps of quarantining first the city of Wuhan,

中国政府先是隔离了最先爆发疫情的武汉市，

where COVID-19 emerged, and then 60 million people living in the province of Hubei,

接着又隔离了居住在武汉所在的湖北省的6000万居民，

where Wuhan is located, the hope was to contain the virus.

如此破天荒的举措，为的便是遏制新冠病毒的传播。

If the people most likely to have been exposed to and infected by the virus couldn’t travel,

（其背后的逻辑是，）如果最大概率接触并感染病毒的人群不流动，

then they couldn’t spread the disease very far.

那么他们就无法将病毒传播很远。

That was also President Donald Trump’s public reasoning

一月份美国政府强势推出限行令时

for the aggressive travel restrictions the U.S. government put in place in January,

特朗普对公众做出的也是这样一番交代。

denying entry to many foreign nationals from China,

美国政府的具体限行措施包括拒绝大量来自中国的外国国籍人员入境，

and funneling passengers arriving in the U.S. who might have traveled to China

同时选择机场，对抵达美国，但可能去过中国的旅客实行引流，

through select airports where they had their temperature scanned and then,

在某些机场对其进行体温检测，

for those with a fever, on to further testing and monitoring.

并对那些发烧的旅客进一步检测及追踪。

But if COVID-19 has taught government and public-health leaders anything,

如果非说政府与公共卫生领导层从此次疫情中吸取了某些教训的话，

it’s that containment, in an era when viruses are given wings through the ease of international travel,

那教训便是现实日益表明，对抗击传染病而言，

is increasingly only a short-term strategy for combatting infectious disease.

围堵——在病毒仗着便捷的国际交通便犹如猛虎添翼的阶段实施的围堵策略——并非长久之计。