新闻周刊:反疫苗者可能导致儿童疾病激增（在线收听）

Anti-Vaxxers Could Fuel Spike in Childhood Diseases: 'It Will Be Horrific'

反疫苗者可能导致儿童疾病激增：“这将是可怕的”

A recent gathering in a Quality Inn ballroom in rural Bradley, Illinois, offered a glimpse -- terrifying to most epidemiologists, thrilling to longtime vaccine "safety" activists -- of America's growing political divide over vaccinations and its implications for the nation's health.

最近，一场在伊利诺斯州布拉德利郊区的一家Quality Inn的舞厅里举行的聚会，让人们得以一窥美国在疫苗接种问题上的日益扩大的政治分歧，以及疫苗对国家健康的影响——大多数流行病学家认为这是很可怕的，而长期进行的疫苗“安全”活动的人士却感到兴奋。

Ostensibly, the meeting was a community forum about employer mandates for COVID vaccines that the organizer expected to draw 80 people in this overwhelmingly Republican exurb of Chicago.

表面上看，这次会议是一个社区论坛，讨论关于雇主对新冠疫苗的要求。组织者预计将在这个共和党人占压倒性多数的芝加哥远郊吸引80人来参加。

Instead, more than 300 people piled in, mostly to complain about the notion that anyone -- a boss, a school, a government -- could force them to take any vaccines at all.

而实际情况是，超过300人蜂拥而至，主要是为了抱怨，任何人——老板、学校、政府——都可以强迫他们接种任何疫苗。

As one Libertarian county commissioner told the crowd: "I will fight for your right to believe in whatever god, medicine or way of life you choose."

正如一位持自由主义论的县长告诉人们的那样：“我将为你们能够自信仰任何上帝、药物或选择生活方式的权利而战。”

The event is being replicated in some form or another in cities and towns across America, emblematic of a growing grassroots movement of people who believe that vaccine mandates -- for COVID, yes, but increasingly for other diseases as well -- are an affront to their personal freedom.

这一活动正以各种形式在美国各地的城镇重演，象征着一场日益壮大的草根运动，他们认为疫苗强制令——针对COVID，是的，但也越来越多地针对其他疾病——是对他们个人自由的冒犯。

That represents a marked shift from pre-pandemic times, when vaccine opponents typically based their reasoning on medical concerns and were largely comprised of a few religious sects and a small number of left-leaning activists seeking explanations for rising rates of autism.

这与疫情爆发前相比，是一个显著的转变。那时，疫苗反对者通常是基于医疗方面的担忧而据理反对，主要由少数几个教派和少数左倾活动人士组成，他们寻求对自闭症发病率上升的解释。

As the anti-vaxx mandate movement gains political traction, particularly on the right, medical experts fear it could not only cripple efforts to eradicate COVID but could also lead to a surge in long-conquered diseases, from mumps to whooping cough to smallpox.

随着反疫苗强制令运动获得政治上的支持，尤其是来自右翼的，医学专家担心，这不仅会使根除新冠肺炎的工作瘫痪，还可能导致从腮腺炎、百日咳到天花等一些早已被征服的疾病激增。

"There are some more conservative states where we are likely to see other non-COVID vaccine mandates under attack, and it is very worrisome," says Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

州和地区卫生官员协会首席医疗官Marcus Plescia说：“在一些更保守的州，我们可能会看到其他非新冠疫苗的接种命令受到攻击，这非常令人担忧。”

"If we have some of these pediatric infectious diseases come back, it will be horrific."

“如果这些儿童传染病卷土重来，那将是非常可怕的。”