美国国家公共电台 NPR--North Korea has confirmed its 1st official COVID-19 outbreak

North Korea has confirmed its 1st official COVID-19 outbreak

Transcript¹

The size of the outbreak wasn't immediately known. A lockdown has been imposed to try to control the spread of the virus.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Who would have thought that 2022 would be the year when North Korea first had COVID? The country claims to have found its first outbreak. It's imposing² a nationwide lockdown. Up to now, that cloistered³ nation has insisted it was COVID-free. Experts doubt that, but what is certain is that North Korea is one of the few countries on Earth that has not even begun to vaccinate⁴ its population.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn is covering this from a safe distance in Seoul. Hey there, Anthony.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE⁵: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: Granting that it's hard to confirm anything in North Korea, what's known?

KUHN: Well, the official Korean Central News Agency says that authorities discovered an omicron variant⁶ in the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday. The report had no information on the number of cases they found or how it got into the country, but authorities have ordered all cities and counties locked down. But North Korea just reportedly test-launched a ballistic missile into the sea. So clearly, not everything is locked down.

INSKEEP: OK. So the military is still going ahead with its work, but there's a lockdown for civilians⁷. I'm just trying to get my brain around the idea that North Korea would have had no COVID cases up to now.

KUHN: Yeah. Well, at the beginning of the pandemic, they sealed the borders, they stopped all trade, and they kept testing a small percentage of the population and claimed that there were no positive cases among them. However, there have been reports that authorities sent patients with cold-like symptoms to quarantine centers.

Now, I spoke⁸ to a doctor named Choi Jong Hoon, and he was a neurologist in North Korea until he defected to South Korea about a decade ago. And he says a lot of those suspected patients in the quarantine centers probably had COVID. Let's hear what he had to say.

CHOI JONG HOON: (Speaking Korean).

KUHN: There would have been at least 30,000 cases at a minimum, he told me. And he says that's within the range of what the North Korean government is capable of controlling and monitoring, although the actual number would have been higher. And Choi's theory is that the North Koreans admitted this outbreak in order to deflect⁹ criticism of their cover-up and harsh crackdown before.

INSKEEP: Anthony, I would imagine that any number of nations would have been happy to send North Korea millions of doses of vaccines¹¹. Nobody wants North Korea to be a lab of viruses mutating. So why have they not vaccinated¹² their population?

KUHN: Well, the global vaccine¹⁰ initiative called COVAX has offered them millions of AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinovac vaccines, but North Korea has refused all of them. And Dr. Choi says the reason is that they don't trust the Western-made ones, and they don't think the Chinese ones work.

INSKEEP: Well, what is the risk now with that unvaccinated population?

KUHN: Well, I think North Koreans can see from China next door that there's a limit to what even the strictest lockdowns can do to stop omicron. But Dr. Choi says that it's also partially¹³ that North Koreans see the threat of COVID differently. Let's hear what he told me.

CHOI: (Speaking Korean).

KUHN: He says North Korean people feel a lower level of threat from the coronavirus than we do because there are many other dangers. You can end up in a labor¹⁴ camp for something you said. You can get arrested just for watching a movie. And interestingly, the Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim Jong-un as saying that what's worse than the virus itself are unscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will. So he was basically confirming that how you think about the virus in North Korea can be riskier¹⁵ than the virus itself.

INSKEEP: NPR's Anthony Kuhn in Seoul. Always appreciate your insights, Anthony. Thanks.

KUHN: Thank you, Steve.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 imposing   

adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的

参考例句：

• The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
• He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。

3 cloistered   

adj.隐居的，躲开尘世纷争的v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• the cloistered world of the university 与世隔绝的大学
• She cloistered herself in the office. 她呆在办公室里好像与世隔绝一样。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 deflect   

v.(使)偏斜，(使)偏离，(使)转向

参考例句：

• Never let a little problem deflect you.决不要因一点小问题就半途而废。
• They decided to deflect from the original plan.他们决定改变原计划。

10 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

11 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

12 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

13 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

14 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

15 riskier   

冒险的，危险的( risky的比较级 )

参考例句：

• Now they are starting to demand higher returns on riskier assets. 而今他们开始在风险更高的资产上要求更高的回报。
• The problem with that: RIM's business is getting riskier every quarter. 不过问题也随之而来：RIM面临的业务风险正逐季增大。