作者警告说，抗击COVID-19就像是“打鼹鼠”

作者警告说，抗击COVID-19就像是“打鼹鼠”

Two years ago, science writer Ed Yong wrote an article for The Atlantic in which he warned that a new global pandemic was inevitable — and that the world would be unprepared for it when it arrived. Now, with the outbreak of COVID-19. much of what Yong warned about in his reporting has come true.

两年前，科学作家Ed Yong为《大西洋月刊》上写了一篇文章，他在文章中警告说，一场新的全球大流行是不可避免的，当它到来时，世界将对此毫无准备。现在，随着COVID-19的爆发，很多Yong在报告中警告过的事情都变成了现实。

Yong says scientists are still working to understand how the novel coronavirus travels through air. His latest article for The Atlantic concerns whether or not people beyond health care workers and other front-line personnel should be wearing some sort of mask to help prevent spread of the coronavirus.

Yong说，科学家们仍在研究这种新型冠状病毒是如何在空气中传播的。他最近在《大西洋月刊》上发表的一篇文章关注的是，除了医护人员和其他前线人员之外，人们是否应该戴上某种口罩，以帮助预防冠状病毒的传播。

Yong notes that there are two ways in which respiratory viruses typically travel through air: as droplets of fluid and as evaporated specks of fluid called "aerosols."

Yong指出，呼吸道病毒通常通过两种方式在空气中传播：一种是以液滴的形式传播，另一种是以蒸发的液滴的形式传播，称为“气溶胶”

He adds that it's not yet clear whether live infectious viral particles remain in the air where infected people have been: "That's the crucial thing to know," he says. "And then really, crucially, are there enough of those viral particles to actually start an infection? We don't know the answer to that yet."

他补充说，目前还不清楚是否有活的传染性病毒颗粒存在于被感染者曾经呆过的地方:“这是需要了解的关键问题，”他说。“然后，真正重要的是，这些病毒颗粒是否足够引起感染?”我们还不知道答案。”

Interview Highlights

采访重点

On what we know about how the virus travels through the air and how we're susceptible to inhaling it

关于病毒是如何在空气中传播的以及我们是如何容易被吸入的

There was one study that just shot virus-laden fluids into a rotating cylinder to create a cloud of aerosols. And they found that within that cloud, the virus remained stable for several hours, which suggests that it can at least survive in the air around us. Now, that's a pretty artificial setup. That's probably closer to a medically invasive procedure like intubation, rather than someone just breathing when they're walking down the street or sitting in a room. So it's hard to know what to make of that outside the health care setting.

有一项研究刚刚将携带病毒的液体射入一个旋转的圆筒中，从而产生气溶胶云。他们发现，在那个云层里，病毒保持稳定了几个小时，这表明它至少可以在我们周围的空气中存活。这是一个非常人为的设置。这可能更接近于一种医学上的侵入性操作，比如插管，而不是一个人在街上走或者坐在房间里的时候呼吸。因此，我们很难知道在医疗保健体系之外，该如何看待这一问题。

But there are other studies that suggest that the coronavirus can be released into the air in less dramatic ways. For example, a new [study] released by the University of Nebraska Medical Center looked for traces of the virus' genetic material in the rooms of several patients who had COVID-19 — many of whom only had mild symptoms. So they found traces of that genetic material on lots of different surfaces, including hard to reach spots like ventilation grates and the floors beneath beds. That's consistent with the idea that the virus is moving through the air over distances longer than a droplet might land.

但也有其他研究表明，冠状病毒可以以不那么剧烈的方式释放到空气中。例如，内布拉斯加大学医学中心发布的一项新的研究，在几个感染了COVID-19的病人的房间里寻找病毒遗传物质的痕迹，这些病人中有许多只有轻微的症状。因此，他们在许多不同的表面上发现了这种遗传物质的痕迹，包括难以触及的地方，比如通风栅和床下的地板。这与病毒在空气中传播的距离比液滴着陆的距离要长这一观点是一致的。

On how thinking about masks for the general population might be changing

普通大众对口罩的看法可能会发生怎样的变化

Confusion is completely understandable, because even among the experts who I've spoken to — including people who've studied airborne transmission and its possibility — opinion is divided on the role of masks and how much protection they can provide. There's just a mess of data on whether masks worn by the general population will provide protection against respiratory illnesses in general; whether masks prevent you, if you are infected, from infecting other people. I think that's a little clearer, both from the evidence and just through common sense. And that might matter a lot for a disease like COVID-19.

困惑是完全可以理解的，因为即使在我交谈过的专家中——包括研究空气传播及其可能性的专家——对口罩的作用和它们能提供多少保护也存在分歧。关于普通人群戴的口罩是否能在总体上预防呼吸道疾病，有一大堆数据;如果你被感染了，口罩是否能防止你感染他人。我认为，无论是从证据还是从常识来看，这都更清楚一些。这可能对COVID-19这样的疾病很重要。

We know that the virus behind it can spread from one person to another before they show symptoms, and that is perhaps the strongest argument for widespread usage of masks. Even if you aren't currently coughing or sneezing or breaking into a fever, you might not know that you have a virus, and wearing a mask might stop you from spreading that virus to someone else.

我们知道，它背后的病毒可以在人出现症状之前从一个人传播到另一个人，这可能是广泛使用口罩的最有力的论据。即使你现在没有咳嗽、打喷嚏或发高烧，你也可能不知道你感染了病毒，戴口罩可能会阻止你把病毒传染给别人。

On why touching your mask negates its protection

为什么触摸你的口罩会抵消它的保护作用

Almost everyone I've spoken to who has experience of actually using the masks properly, but somebody do not. They pull the mask over their chin, wipe their faces. They touch the masks constantly. They're always adjusting it. And that carries a risk, and maybe the risk is that you do lure yourself into a false sense of security, thinking you're safe, but in a situation when you're actually increasing the likelihood of infection.

几乎所有和我交谈过的人都有正确使用口罩的经验，但有些人不会正确使用。他们几乎总是会弄错。他们把面罩划过脸，拉到下巴上。他们不停地触摸口罩。他们总是在调整。这是有风险的，风险可能是你会让自己产生一种错误的安全感，以为自己是安全的，但实际上你是在增加感染的可能性。