新冠疫苗接种开启 疫情结束还会远吗？

Vaccines play an important role in safeguarding human health. As COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the world, these jabs seem to be our best bet to end the global health crisis soon.

疫苗在保障人类健康方面发挥着重要作用。随着新冠肺炎疫情继续肆虐全球，这些疫苗或许是我们尽快结束这场疫情的最佳选择。

But what's the history of vaccine development? And how do vaccines work?

但是疫苗有着怎样的发展历史？又是如何发挥作用的呢？

Vaccines work by playing a clever trick on our immune system. We introduce agents resembling the disease we are trying to prevent into our body. Our immune system destroys them, but not before remembering them. This process of remembering helps protect us against future incidences of the disease.

疫苗通过触发免疫反应而巧妙地发挥作用。我们将类似于病原微生物的生物制品引入人体，人体免疫系统会消灭它们同时也会“记住”它们 ，这个记忆的过程有助于保护我们将来免受同种疾病的侵害。

Some of the earliest immunization practices were used to prevent the recurrence of rabies after one was bit by a dog. This is documented in a Chinese medical book on "Fomulas for Emergencies" around the 4th century, although at the time less advanced methods were adopted than what we have today.

最早的疫苗接种记录就包括天花疫苗，这在4世纪左右的中国医书《肘后备急方》中就有记载。尽管当时采用的方法不如我们今天的先进。

With the development of scientific medicine, the 20th century saw the expansion of vaccine coverage globally, including substantial human achievements like the eradication of smallpox and the reduction of polio.

随着医学的发展，20世纪疫苗在全球范围内的应用不断扩大，帮助人类取得了巨大成就，例如消灭天花和减少小儿麻痹症的发病率。

The positive impact of vaccination has been extensively verified, with vaccines effectively preventing a wide range of diseases, and significantly promoting life expectancy. For example, according to the World Health Organization, the measles vaccine resulted in a 73-percent drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2018. It alone was responsible for preventing over 1 million deaths worldwide annually.

疫苗的积极作用已得到广泛验证，疫苗可有效预防多种疾病，并显著提高预期寿命。例如，世界卫生组织的数据显示，2000年至2018年期间，麻疹疫苗使麻疹死亡人数下降了73%，每年在全球范围内防止100多万人死亡。

However, despite the overwhelming scientific consensus surrounding vaccines, a recent and predominantly Western trend has been the rise of anti-vaccination discourse. Anti-vaccination arguments usually deny the unquestionable improvements that vaccines have made to public health. Another more recent tactic has been scaremongering over alleged safety risks.

尽管人们已就疫苗达成了广泛的科学共识，但近来西方的反疫苗论调却甚嚣尘上，反疫苗人士通常否认疫苗对公众健康起到的毋庸置疑的改善作用。另一种较新的手段则是就疫苗的安全性发布耸人听闻的言论。

Part of the problem is "Recency Bias," where recent events seem more important than historic ones. It's easier to remember one news report about a negative vaccine experience than what society was like when diseases like smallpox were widespread. So, some people perceive the danger of side effects to be greater than the risks of the disease. This cognitive bias is a fertile ground for anti-vaccination voices.

问题的部分原因在于认知上的“近因偏差”，即最近发生的事件似乎比历史经验更重要，人们更容易记住一则关于疫苗接种的负面报道，而不容易记住天花等疾病肆虐时期的社会状况。因此，有些人认为疫苗的副作用风险大于疾病本身的风险，这种认知偏差成为了反疫苗团体生长的沃壤。

Even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is notable how anti-vaccination discourse raised its ugly head. According to the Lancet, a report released in October 2020 by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit limited company found that since 2019 anti-vaccine social media accounts had increased their following by 7.9 million, pushing the number of people following such groups to 31 million on Facebook and 17 million on YouTube.

在新冠肺炎疫情期间，反疫苗言论的抬头着实引起了人们的关注。据《柳叶刀》报道，非营利公司“反数字仇恨中心”于2020年10月发布的一份报告指出，自2019年以来反疫苗社交媒体账号的粉丝数量增加了790万，分别达到3100万和1700万。

Some contend that this has been partly enabled by the political philosophy of Western liberalism and its blind obsession with individual freedom and choice. Unrestricted free speech creates space for anti-vaccination arguments and conspiracy theories to be propagated. Arguments for individual choice grant individuals the right to refuse vaccination.

有人认为，这在一定程度上是西方自由主义的政治哲学及其对个人自由和自主选择的执念造成的。不受限制的言论自由为反疫苗论调和阴谋论的传播创造了空间，就如近期在西方媒体上出现的那些观点。它们主张个人选择权，赋予个人拒绝接种疫苗的权利。

However, scientists believe that humanity would benefit from less tolerance towards anti-scientific ideas. To steer out of the pandemic, following science is crucial.

但是，科学家们认为降低对反科学思想的容忍度将使人类受益。要想摆脱疫情，遵循科学至关重要。

Currently, a host of vaccines, such as UK's Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the American-German Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and China's Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, have been approved in many countries where governments are racing to inoculate their populations.

目前，英国牛津/阿斯利康疫苗，美国辉瑞/德国生物新技术公司疫苗，以及中国国药集团和科兴生物的疫苗已在多国获批使用。许多国家政府正竞相为本国民众接种疫苗。

As effective vaccination requires most people to be vaccinated, individuals who choose not to for no good reasons impose a substantial risk and cost on the rest of humanity. After the experience of 2020, surely this is not a cost we are prepared to pay.

要想疫苗有效，就需要大多数人接种，无故选择不接种的人会给其他社会成员造成巨大的风险和代价。回顾2020年的经历，我们谁都不想再为此付出沉重的代价。

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