美国国家公共电台 NPR--COVID testing requirement to fly to the U.S. will be dropped

COVID testing requirement to fly to the U.S. will be dropped

Transcript¹

The Biden administration announced that it will drop the requirement for travelers coming to the United States by air to test negative for COVID-19 before departure.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Travel into the United States gets easier starting this weekend. People will no longer need a negative COVID test before departure for the United States. A senior Biden administration official affirms this change. NPR's Pien Huang joins us now. Good morning.

PIEN HUANG, BYLINE²: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: How different is this than the rules as of today and for the last long while?

HUANG: Well, it is a big change. I mean, for the last year and a half, the CDC has required anyone coming into the U.S. by plane to test negative for COVID within 24 hours of boarding their flight. You know, you had to submit your negative test to the airline. You had to sign an attestation³ saying that your test results were true. And this was to prevent people with active COVID cases from flying into the country. Now, as you mentioned, senior administration officials have confirmed to NPR that this requirement is lifting as of 12 a.m. - 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, people flying into the U.S. will no longer have this testing requirement.

INSKEEP: I'm thinking about how this applies to me because sometimes I leave the country for reporting, and I'm contemplating⁴ doing that in the coming months. I guess the good news for me is I no longer have to fear being shut out of the United States if I test positive, right?

HUANG: Mmm hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

INSKEEP: But there's also this downside that I can't feel reassured⁵ that I'm on a plane full of people who just tested negative.

HUANG: That's true, Steve. And, I mean, that's - I think that's the case for a lot of travelers that are, you know, sort of abroad right now or going to travel abroad and are thinking about what this means for them. I mean, for - from the CDC's perspective, what they say is that they've looked at the science and the data, and they've decided⁶ that tests are no longer needed right now. The White House says that we're in a phase of the pandemic where there's vaccines⁷, there's treatments available that can prevent serious illness, death. These methods work against the variants⁹ that are currently circulating. And 90% of U.S. counties right now currently have low or medium COVID community levels, which means their case counts and hospitalizations are somewhat under control.

Now, the administration has also been getting pressure from travel and airline industries that say that this testing requirement has been expensive, it's been onerous¹⁰, and it's kept travelers at bay. I actually talked with Dr. Lin Chen. I caught her an hour ago as she was on a walking tour of Rotterdam. And she's past president of the International Society of Travel Medicine and a travel infectious disease doctor at Harvard. She thinks that lifting the requirement will actually lift a lot of anxiety for travelers.

LIN CHEN: Everybody's trying to figure out where can they get tested, where they can get a rapid test. And then a lot of travelers have had to think about contingencies¹¹ if they were to test positive.

HUANG: They might end up stranded¹². They might have to quarantine in another country. And she says that a lot of other countries have already lifted their testing requirements. So the U.S. has been kind of conservative in holding the line until now. Now, the CDC does say that they're going to reassess in 90 days. They reserve the right to bring back the testing requirement if, say, a new global variant⁸ emerges or things get kind of out of control.

INSKEEP: There wasn't a testing requirement domestically, was there?

HUANG: No, there hasn't been. And, you know, it sort of comes as this pattern of lifting travel regulations. You know, so, for instance, just a couple months ago, the CDC's national mask mandate¹³ for travelers domestically was struck down.

INSKEEP: Right.

HUANG: Now, Chen says that this requirement - you know, lifting the testing requirement might lead to an increase in cases. It could even introduce new variants. But what it definitely does is shift the burden from a legal regulation to individual responsibility.

INSKEEP: OK. That's NPR's Pien Huang. Thanks so much.

HUANG: Thanks.

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 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。

3 attestation   

n.证词

参考例句：

• According to clew, until pay treasure attestation the success. 按照提示，直到支付宝认证成功。 来自互联网
• Hongkong commercial college subdecanal. Specialty division of international attestation. 香港商学院副院长，国际认证专业培训师。 来自互联网

4 contemplating   

深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想

参考例句：

• You're too young to be contemplating retirement. 你考虑退休还太年轻。
• She stood contemplating the painting. 她站在那儿凝视那幅图画。

5 reassured   

adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The captain's confidence during the storm reassured the passengers. 在风暴中船长的信念使旅客们恢复了信心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The doctor reassured the old lady. 医生叫那位老妇人放心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 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。

8 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。

9 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

10 onerous   

adj.繁重的

参考例句：

• My household duties were not particularly onerous.我的家务活并不繁重。
• This obligation sometimes proves onerous.这一义务有时被证明是艰巨的。

11 contingencies   

n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一

参考例句：

• We must consider all possible contingencies. 我们必须考虑一切可能发生的事。
• We must be prepared for all contingencies. 我们要作好各种准备，以防意外。 来自辞典例句

12 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

13 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。