冠察天下：全球防疫面临三大挑战

It is not officially called a pandemic but COVID-19 is rapidly spreading worldwide. In late January, the vast majority of cases were in China. A month later, cases outside China began to grow and it only took another week for the virus to spread to every continent except Antarctica.

尽管还未正式宣布为全球大流行，新冠病毒（COVID-19）已经开始在全球迅速传播。这是一月下旬时，绝大多数病例都发生在中国。一个月以后，中国以外的病例逐渐增加。仅仅一周时间病毒就传播到了南极洲以外的各个大洲。

According to the World Health Organization, (as of March 5) 85 countries/territories/areas outside China have reported over 14,000 cases. On March 4, 14 times as many cases were reported outside China than inside. 

据世卫组织3月5日发布的数据，中国境外85个国家（地区), 累计报告了超过14,000个病例。3月4日，中国以外地区报告的病例数达到中国境内病例数的14倍。

There are a few challenges so far in the fight against the COVID-19. 

抗击新冠疫情面临几大挑战。

The first is a cover-up mentality which proved to be the worst enemy of an epidemic. 

首先，“隐瞒”心态是流行病防治的最大障碍。

In Hubei the epicenter, local officials should have disclosed and reported more information sooner to avoid a larger outbreak. In South Korea, the founder of a religious sect did not disclose his travel history to Wuhan and resulted in half of the country's current infections.

疫情中心湖北省的官员本应更早公布并汇报更多信息以阻止疫情更大规模的爆发。在韩国，某宗教团体创始人没有公布其武汉旅行史，导致韩国现有病例中半数都来自于该团体。

The second challenge is a lack of a non-partisan coordinated national response.

其次，是一些地区没有全国性的超党派的协调行动。

The mortality rate in the U.S. as of March 4 is eight percent. That's higher than the four percent in China's epicenter Hubei or three percent in Iran. With 2020 being an election year in the U.S., the Trump administration's response to COVID-19 has been as much a political issue as a public health issue. 

3月4日为止，美国新冠肺炎的死亡率为百分之八，高于疫情中心湖北省的百分之四和伊朗的百分之三。由于2020年是美国的大选年，特朗普政府对COVID-19疫情的应对既是公共卫生事件，也是政治议题。

While the real focus, as many argue, should be on a quicker response and faster diagnosis.

然而，正如很多人所说的，工作的真正重心应该是采取更果断的措施和进行更快速的检测。

In an interview with CNBC, Dr. Matt McCarthy, staff physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital said: "As one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don't have [testing kits] at my fingertips. I still have to call the department of health. I still have to make my case, to plea to test people.”

纽约长老会医院主治医师马特·麦卡锡在CNBC的采访中说到：“我的医院是全美最繁忙的医院之一，但我手头没有（检测试剂试剂盒）。我还得给卫生部打电话。我还得要给出我的理由，请求给人们做检测。”

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA Commissioner also stated: "One of the mistakes, one of the challenges was getting the diagnostic testing in place.... we always rely on the CDC in a public health emergency.”

前任美国食品和药物管理局局长斯科特·戈特利布博士也强调说：“一种错误做法，挑战之一是进行诊断检测……我们在发生紧急公共卫生事件时总是依赖疾控中心。”

The final challenge is to find the balance between personal liberty and restrictive measures, such as quarantine and travel bans.

最后一个挑战是在人身自由和像是隔离以及旅行禁令等限制手段之间寻找平衡。

In hard-hit Italy, besides in heavily affected cities, there haven't been nationwide travel restrictions. With the EU's open borders, Italy exported the virus to 14 countries in a week.

在受疫情影响较大的意大利，除了几个情况严重的城市，政府还未实施全国范围内的旅行限制。

This, while some residents in Italy refused to wear masks and went on a protest, demanding the government to give back their “liberty" Demands like this apparently angered an Italian parliamentarian who believes it's better to be safe than sorry.

由于欧盟各国边境开放，意大利在一周内就将病毒输出至14个国家。类似的要求显然激怒了一位意大利议员，他认为保障安全总比万一出事更重要。

And in France some people shared a similar story.

在法国也有类似事件发生。 

A French girl named Cleo Luden shared a video on the popular Chinese video-sharing app Douyin (Tik Tok). In the video, she says : "The French don't usually wear masks, maybe they do now, but we can't find any at the moment. You must see a doctor first and then buy some masks if the doctor says you need them, otherwise the pharmacy won't sell you any. I don't know why! We all feel that the French government takes it too easy and people in France are just freaked out."

法国女孩魏无瑕在抖音上分享了这样一则视频，她在视频中说到：“法国人没有戴口罩的习惯。但是估计现在会有了。不过现在好像买不到口罩了。只能去看医生，然后医生给你说可以霾口罩，你就可以去买。不然药房就不卖给你了。我也不知道为什么！我们都感觉，法国政府对于这个事情有点过于轻松，我们法国人民都很担心。”

In the U.S., experts say there could be legal issues for large-scale quarantine, even though top experts say under some circumstances, extreme measures proved effective.

在美国，专家称采取大范围的隔离措施可能会引发法律问题，虽然最高级别的专家指出在某些情况下，采用极端措施是证明有效的。

Maria Van Kerkhove, technical Lead at WHO Health Emergency Program, voiced support and spoken highly of China's efforts to combat the COVID-19 stressing that "following these fundamental measures, looking for cases, looking for contacts, social distancing, hand-washing, respiratory etiquette, readying your systems, having an aggressive approach to this, we believe a reduction in cases in other countries, including South Korea, including Italy, including Iran, everywhere that this is possible.”

世界卫生组织公共卫生紧急计划技术主管玛丽亚·范·柯霍夫高度评价中国抗击新冠肺炎疫情努力，强调说“比如寻找病例、追踪接触者、保持社交距离、勤洗手、注意呼吸道礼仪、各类系统准备就位以及采取严格手段，那么我们相信其他国家，比如韩国、意大利和伊朗等等的病例都会减少。

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, that is – in face of an unknown disease, perhaps there is no such thing as a perfect response system. All countries need to own up to their limitations, be adaptable, respect science, avoid mistakes made, and follow practices that have proven effective.

如果说新冠肺炎疫情给我们留下了什么启示，那就是在未知疾病面前，可能根本不存在完美的反应机制。所有国家都需要承认自己的不足，灵活应对，尊重科学，避免失误并采取已被证实有效的做法。

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