悦辩悦明 | 疫苗利己也需利人

A pandemic is still ravaging the world, but how quickly are people getting vaccinated for COVID-19?

疫情依然在全球肆虐, 目前人们接种新冠肺炎疫苗的进度如何？

Infections won’t stop unless the world is rid of the virus by establishing herd immunity. The sooner we vaccinate the people, the less the infection. The less the infection, the slower mutating of the virus. The slower mutation, the better we beat this at last.

除非全球人口实现群体免疫，彻底消灭病毒。

我们越早为人们接种疫苗，感染人数就越少；感染的人越少，病毒变异的速度就越慢；变异的速度越慢，我们最终战胜疫情的几率就越高。

China has administered 400 million vaccines domestically, inoculating roughly 30% of its population. But the road ahead is still an uphill battle.

中国的新冠疫苗接种超4亿剂次，约30%的人口完成接种。但依然任重道远。

How do we get there?

那么方法是什么呢？

80% of China – that is 1.12 billion people. Let’s say China wants to reach that goal by the end of 2021. Every month, over 110 million people have to be vaccinated, roughly the population of UK and South Korea combined. So think about this, every day, 3.7 million people. Vaccine centers are usually open 8 hours a day. That means every second, 130 people have to be inoculated.” In a regular vaccination center, 30 nurses work 7 hours a day, every day of the week, to give residents the jab they’ve been waiting for.

中国80%的人口相当于11.2亿人。假设中国想在2021年底达到这一目标，那么每个月必须有1.1亿多人接种疫苗，大致相当于英国和韩国人口的总和。日均接种人数要达到370万。疫苗接种点通常每天提供8小时服务，这意味着每一秒钟，接种人数必须达到130人。

Be selfish, but not stupid

自私，但不能愚蠢。

America is also catching up with its vaccination. The US has vac­cinated almost half of its population. But it has been unabashedly selfish in the process.

美国在疫苗接种方面正迎头赶上。美国近一半人群已接种疫苗。但在这个过程中，它丝毫不掩饰自己的自私。

The U.S. has produced more than 300 million doses of vaccine and exported about three million. Understandably the Biden administration needs to prioritize domestic supply as America is still the most infected nation in the world. But turning a blind eye to the world is not the way to lead. More disappointingly, the Biden team wants to claim a moral high ground in another way.

美国生产了3亿多剂疫苗，却只出口了约300万剂。拜登政府优先供应国内人群的做法可以理解，毕竟美国依然是世界上病例数最多的国家。但对全球疫情形势置若罔闻并非领导之道。更令人失望的是，拜登政府希望通过耍手段来占据道德制高点。

Washington says it wants to speed up global production. But just to think a little harder, it is not difficult to conclude that not only it will slow down production of the current proprietary vaccines, it will also lead to hoarding of vaccine-making materials, upset the production scheduling and prevent future vaccine development.  Biden’s nice-sounding promise will probably get America some false sense of morality but nothing helpful for the world. That is why it is strongly opposed by even European allies.

美国政府称它希望加快全球疫苗生产速度。但只要稍加思考，就不难得出以下结论，这种做法不仅会放缓专利疫苗的生产速度，还会导致疫苗原材料的囤积居奇，打乱疫苗排产计划挫伤疫苗研发积极性。拜登的漂亮话也许会在道义上满足美国的虚荣心，但却对世界没有任何帮助。就连美国的欧洲盟友也强烈反对这种做法。

Joe Biden said on Monday that his administration will send at least 20 million more doses of US-authorized Covid vaccines to other countries in the coming weeks. That is a good sign, although it is still too little and a little late.

乔·拜登周一表示，美国政府会将至少增加2000万剂在美批准上市的新冠肺炎疫苗，在未来几周内提供给其他国家。这是个好兆头，只是来的有些晚，力度也不足。

Help those who cannot help themselves

帮助那些无助的人

By comparison, China has shipped 252 million doses overseas, or 42% of its total production. And more encouragingly the World Health Organization (WHO) has authorized the first Chinese vaccine for emergency use, and another could be listed in the coming days, opening the door to wide distribution in lower-income nations. Beijing has pledged to donate 17.6 million doses to 65 countries.

相比之下，中国已向海外运送了2.52亿剂疫苗，占国内总产量的42%。更令人鼓舞的是，世卫组织宣布首款中国疫苗获得紧急使用授权，另一款中国疫苗将于未来数日内获准上市，为向低收入国家分配疫苗铺平了道路。中国政府承诺向65个国家捐赠1760万剂疫苗。

The obvious reason is that China has a strong manufacturing capacity and a full economic recovery. And the country has managed to contain the virus spreading within its borders despite low numbers of local infections occasionally.

背后的原因很明显，中国拥有强大的生产能力和全面的经济复苏。国内疫情已经基本得到控制，只是偶尔会出现零星的本土病例。

But the deeper reason is China knows its future is connected with the world. Covid teaches us one big thing: we need an open global system no matter what. By helping others, we are helping ourselves in a big way.

但更深层次的原因在于，中国明白自己与世界各国休戚与共。疫情告诉我们一个道理：无论世界如何变化，我们都需要一个开放的全球体系。帮助别人，就是帮助自己。

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