美国国家公共电台 NPR New Coronavirus Sparks More Aggressive Global Response Than

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

There are as many as 5 million severe cases of the flu each year. So far, there have been around 20,000 cases of the new coronavirus, most of them mild. Yet, in response to the coronavirus, governments have shut down border crossings, airlines have canceled flights. The U.S. is quarantining travelers from Hubei province in China. NPR's Nurith Aizenman reports on why the response has been so aggressive.

NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE¹: A major factor is the uncertainty² surrounding this new virus. Contrast that with seasonal³ flu.

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ANTHONY FAUCI: There's a certainty of seasonal flu. I can tell you all guaranteed that as we get into March and April, the flu cases are going to go down.

AIZENMAN: Anthony Fauci directs the U.S. National Institute of Allergy⁴ and Infectious Diseases.

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FAUCI: You could predict pretty accurately⁵ what the range of the mortality is and the hospitalizations.

AIZENMAN: But health officials don't know how deadly this new virus is. For instance, right now, it does seem to be more of a killer⁶ than the flu. Christian⁷ Althaus is a computational epidemiologist at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

CHRISTIAN ALTHAUS: For a flu, one can roughly say that maybe 1 in 1,000 or less of infected people dies. But for this new coronavirus, it could well be about 1%.

AIZENMAN: In other words, a death rate that's about 10 times greater than the flu. But even if the death rate ultimately turns out to be more on par⁸ with the flu, Althaus says there's another consideration here. If we could permanently⁹ eliminate the flu, we would. Unfortunately, the flu is already too widespread. This new coronavirus has only just started circulating in humans.

ALTHAUS: Now we have, basically, the opportunity to prevent spread of a new respiratory disease in the first place.

AIZENMAN: But with at least 17,000 confirmed cases, is it still possible to stamp out this disease? Althaus notes that nearly 20 years ago, the world did succeed in eliminating another coronavirus; the one that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome¹⁰, or SARS, which infected at least 8,000 people globally. But here's the thing. With SARS...

ALTHAUS: The majority of infected individuals do not transmit the infection at all.

AIZENMAN: A lot of people who were infected didn't pass SARS on, says Althaus. Instead, the disease mostly spread through what's known as superspreading events - rare cases of people who shed an unusual amount of the virus or hospitals that had terrible infection control such that a lot of health workers got sick and then passed the disease on further.

ALTHAUS: A small fraction of infected individuals can infect a lot of additional people, like 10, 20 or 30 people.

AIZENMAN: And as scary as that sounds, this pattern of spread is actually easier to contain. With SARS, officials were able to put most of their energy on identifying the superspreading sources.

ALTHAUS: If you miss a few infected individuals, it might not be that bad because they might not cause a new transmission chain anyway.

AIZENMAN: Unfortunately, Althaus and others have been modeling this new coronavirus, and their work suggests that it may be spreading at a much more steady rate, a lot like the flu.

ALTHAUS: That means that we have to be very careful that we really find all individuals that are infected with this virus that travel to other countries.

AIZENMAN: The U.S. has taken the aggressive step of putting into quarantine travelers from the province in China with the most infections. Dr. Nancy Messonnier is with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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NANCY MESSONNIER: The goal here is to slow the entry of this virus into the United States.

AIZENMAN: And stop it before it can take root and become another seasonal disease - but it may be too late. The latest estimates suggest that there could be tens of thousands more infections in China that have not yet been diagnosed.

Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.

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1 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。

2 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

3 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

4 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

5 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

6 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 par   

n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的

参考例句：

• Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years.近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
• I don't think his ability is on a par with yours.我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。

9 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

10 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。