美国国家公共电台 NPR 英国发现新冠病毒变种 传染性增强70%（在线收听）

Britain's prime minister, Boris Johnson, called an emergency meeting this morning. A variant of the coronavirus is spreading in the U.K., and scientists say it could be much more infectious than the original. Other European countries — including France, Ireland and Italy — have now banned travel to and from the U.K. And here's Matt Hancock, Britain's health secretary, talking to the BBC yesterday.

今天上午，英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊召开紧急会议。冠状病毒变体正在英国传播，科学家称其比原始病毒更具传染性。包括法国、爱尔兰和意大利在内的其他欧洲国家已禁止前往英国旅行。以下是英国卫生大臣马修·汉考克昨天接受英国广播公司的采访时所说。

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MATT HANCOCK: The new variant is out of control, and we need to bring it under control. And this news about the new variant has been an incredibly difficult end to, frankly, an awful year.

马修·汉考克：新变种已经失控，我们需要将它控制住。坦白地说，有关新变种的消息对这糟糕的一年来说是极其困难的结束。

KING: NPR's Frank Langfitt is just outside of London. Hey, Frank.

金：NPR新闻的弗兰克·朗菲特现在在伦敦郊外。你好，弗兰克。

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Noel.

弗兰克·朗菲特连线：你好。早上好，诺埃尔。

KING: So you have a travel ban. You have a lockdown in some parts of the U.K. It is sounding a lot like March and April with respect to isolation.

金：英国面临旅行禁令。英国的部分地区还在实施封锁。这听起来像三月和四月时的封城状态。

LANGFITT: It does. It feels very — much more isolated than it did even just a few days ago here on the island of Great Britain. Now, France has gone further and say, no trucks coming from Britain across the English Channel on ferries. The Eurotunnel, which runs under the channel, is also closed. This seems to be a precautionary measure for about 48 hours.

朗菲特：没错。这感觉甚至比几天前的大不列颠岛还要孤立。现在，法国更进一步表示，禁止英国卡车乘坐渡轮越过英吉利海峡。英吉利海峡水下的欧洲隧道也已关闭。这一预防措施的有效期为48小时。

There's a lot of concern now around the Christmas season. We've already seen backups at the port of Dover, 20 miles long. And what's been happening is people are trying to get freight across the channel before the deadline for the Brexit transition period, which is going to end on New Year's Eve. Right now we have truckers stranded on both sides of the water. And the only good news, I'd say, is that shipping containers — which are the majority of trade — they're still moving because, of course, they're not people driving the shipping containers.

现在有很多人对圣诞节假期感到担忧。我们看到多佛港已经出现绵延20英里的严重拥堵。而目前的情况是，人们正试图在英国脱欧过渡期的最后期限，即元旦之前通过英吉利海峡运送货物。现在海峡两侧都有卡车司机被困。我想说，唯一的好消息是，大多数贸易采用的货运集装箱仍然在移动，自然是因为这些集装箱不需要人驾驶。

KING: OK. Let's establish something that scientists say often, which is that viruses do mutate. We expect them to.

金：好。我们来谈谈科学家经常说的事情，即病毒确实会变异。我们预计病毒会变异。

LANGFITT: Sure.

朗菲特：对。

KING: Why are government scientists in the U.K. so concerned about this particular mutation?

金：为什么英国的政府科学家如此关注这一特殊变种？

LANGFITT: I think a couple of reasons. One is that it quickly became the dominant version in this part of England, where I am — in London and beyond. And that's not a big problem. We saw that with the Spanish virus, not — over the summer, when people, tourists, brought it back from Spain. The problem — and in London, for instance, right now, this new variant, about over 60% of the virus is found in London.

朗菲特：我认为有几个原因。一是该变种很快成为英国伦敦及周边地区的主流版本。这并不是大问题。今年夏天，人们结束度假后曾从西班牙带回病毒。问题是，现在有约60%以上的病毒新变种出现在伦敦。

The problem is that this domination is coinciding with exponential growth of the virus in these areas. Scientists now believe it could be up to 70% more infectious than the various mutations that are floating around this country. And that's why I think you're seeing the dramatic response of these European neighbors and, of course, the lockdown that we have here in London. One important good news so far is there's no sign that this mutation has more severe symptoms or is more deadly.

问题是，这种主流地位与病毒在这些地区的指数增长相一致。科学家现在认为，这一病毒变种的感染性可能比在美国四处传播的各种变种高出70%。我认为这就是欧洲邻国反应剧烈以及伦敦实施封锁的原因。到目前为止，一个重要的好消息是，尚没有迹象表明这一变种会导致更严重的症状或更致命。

KING: OK, that's some good news. What about scientists outside of Britain? Are they expressing concern about this?

金：好，这是个好消息。英国以外的科学家呢？他们有对此表示担忧吗？

LANGFITT: They are. Ones that I've talked to, particularly in the last 24 hours — a vaccine expert and epidemiologists — they don't like the data they're seeing either. This is Emma Hodcroft. She's an epidemiologist who studies coronavirus mutations at the University of Bern in Switzerland. This is what she said this morning.

朗菲特：有。我进行过采访，特别是，我在过去24小时里采访了一位疫苗专家和多位流行病学家，他们也不喜欢他们看到的数据。我们来听听艾玛·霍德克罗夫特的采访。她是瑞士伯尔尼大学研究冠状病毒变种的流行病学家。以下是她今天早上所说。

EMMA HODCROFT: I do think that it's concerning, and I don't say that very lightly. Certainly, as evidence has gathered with this new variant, it does seem like there might be an increased transmissibility. And so I do think we need to start being quite cautious about what we're doing about it.

艾玛·霍德克罗夫特：我确实认为这是一件令人担忧的事，这并非轻率的说法。当然，随着相关证据的累积，我们发现这一病毒新变种似乎确实有可能增加传染性。因此我认为我们在应对时需要非常谨慎。

KING: And as you said earlier, Frank, the timing here is really messy because Britain still hasn't been able to strike a free trade deal with the European Union.

金：弗兰克，你早些时候表示，现在的时机相当混乱，因为英国尚未能与欧盟达成自由贸易协议。

LANGFITT: No.

朗菲特：没有。

KING: Time runs out on New Year's Eve. This can't make anything easier, can it?

金：最后期限是元旦前夕，现在时间已所剩无几。而这并不能令情况变得更容易，对吧？

LANGFITT: No, it just makes things even worse. And I don't think people would have even imagined that this was likely to happen. There's the great risk if there's no deal on free trade — there's no free trade deal — we see customs and tariffs going up in Dover. Right now trucks aren't even crossing the English Channel. So it could be even more disruptive than what we imagined, would do a lot more economic damage on both sides of the channel.

朗菲特：不能，这只会让事情变得更糟。我认为人们甚至都没想到会发生这种情况。如果没有自由贸易协议，就会产生很大的风险，我们会看到多佛港设立海关，而且关税也会上升。现在卡车还没有穿过英吉利海峡。因此，无协议可能比我们想象的更具破坏性，会对英吉利海峡两岸造成更大的经济损失。

KING: NPR's Frank Langfitt. Thanks, Frank.

金：以上是NPR新闻的弗兰克·朗菲特带来的报道。谢谢你，弗兰克。

LANGFITT: Great to talk, Noel.

朗菲特：很高兴和你连线，诺埃尔。