时代周刊:百年回望1916纽约脊髓灰质炎大爆发(1)（在线收听）

Comparisons are more commonly drawn between the 1918 flu pandemic and today,

人们常将当下的新冠肺炎大流行和1918年（西班牙）流感大流行相提并论，

but the polio outbreak is actually the more apt one.

殊不知，更恰当的类比对象其实是脊髓灰质炎（俗称小儿麻痹症）大流行。

Today, we hear nonsense about injecting disinfectant into the body to battle coronavirus.

最近，我们听到了类似向体内注射消毒剂的方式就能对抗新冠病毒这样的无稽之谈。

Back then, it was hanging mothballs around your child’s neck to prevent the scourge popularly known as infantile paralysis.

而脊髓灰质炎大流行期间流传的无稽之谈则是在孩子脖子上挂樟脑丸就能预防俗称“小儿麻痹症”的脊髓灰质炎病。

Today, there’s the hyping of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to battle a disease it was not meant to battle.

最近被大肆炒作的是治疗疟疾的羟氯喹，问题是，这种药根本就不是拿来治疗新冠肺炎这种疾病的药。

Back then, it was mixing a paste made of wintergreen, Russian thyme,

而脊髓灰质炎大流行期间被大肆炒作的则是用冬青叶和俄罗斯百里香制成的浆糊

and the oils of rosemary, cajeput and wood—and rubbing them into the muscles.

混和迷迭香、白千层和木材的汁液制成的东西——具体用法则是将其揉搓进肌肉里。

If you think sheltering in place in your climate-controlled, wi-fi-streaming, cable-equipped home seems tough,

如果你觉得宅在风吹不着雨淋不到，无线覆盖还有有线电视可看的家里躲病毒不够舒服，

try doing it in a blistering summer before there was air-conditioning or Internet—or even television.

那你可以试试炎炎夏日，宅在没有空调，没有网络，甚至连电视都没有的地方躲脊髓灰质炎病毒。

As Mark Twain is said to have said, history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes,

正如马克吐温所说，据传是他说的，历史并不会重演，但它隔三差五就会押韵，

and the two epidemics, 104 years apart, are forming a tidy couplet.

新冠肺炎和脊髓灰质炎，期间间隔了104年的两次大流行，俨然一幅工整的对联。

New York and other cities shut down then as they have shut down now.

那一次同这一次一样，纽约等各大城市也封城了。

In the first week of July 1916 alone,

仅1916年7月的第一周，

552 children in New York’s five boroughs were stricken with polio, and more than 1,000 the second week.

纽约五个区就有552名儿童染上小儿麻痹症，感染人数第二周就已破千。

Even before that feverish fortnight,

然而，早在疫情突飞猛进的半月之前，

the city health commissioner, Haven Emerson (the great-nephew of the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson),

纽约市卫生专员黑文·爱默生(诗人拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生的曾侄子)

made it his business to keep New Yorkers apart.

就已将分散纽约人视为自己的职责。

Children under 16 were not permitted in crowded public places.

不允许16岁以下的儿童前往拥挤的公共场所。

Open-air movies, a new summer attraction, were forbidden.

露天电影，在当时还是刚出现不久的夏日诱惑，被禁止了。

Fourth of July celebrations were canceled.

7月4日（国庆节）的庆祝活动也被取消了。

As COVID-19 might be, polio is a seasonal disease, though the poliovirus prefers the hot months,

脊髓灰质炎是一种季节性疾病，尽管脊髓灰质炎病毒更喜欢炎热的月份，新冠肺炎可能也是一种季节性疾病，

and SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is at least thought to prefer the cool ones.

但引发新冠肺炎的SARS-CoV-2病毒是更喜欢，至少在人们的印象中是更喜欢凉爽的季节的。

Now, as in 1916, the push for a vaccine is thus a cyclical one—

和1916年（纽约市脊髓灰质炎大爆发时）一样，此次新冠肺炎大爆发后的疫苗研制工作也是一个周期过程，

a race against a viral time bomb set to go off by the calendar.

一场与一枚由病毒催生的，按日历走的定时炸弹的赛跑。

While the clamor for a vaccine was loud after the polio epidemic of 1916, the wait was long.

尽管1916年脊髓灰质炎疫情爆发后，要求接种疫苗的呼声很高，等待疫苗到来的时间却很长。

It was not until the summer of 1935 that there was hope, in the form of two great field trials:

直到1935年夏天，人们才在两项伟大的现场试验身上看到了曙光：

one by Dr. Maurice Brodie and Dr. William Park of the New York City department of health

一项是纽约市卫生局的莫里斯·布罗迪医生和威廉·帕克医生开展的，

and one by Dr. John Kolmer of Temple University in Philadelphia.

一项是费城坦普尔大学的约翰·科尔默医生开展的。