雅思阅读：一封意大利人的公开信

目前，意大利疫情正在不断蔓延，局势紧迫，下面我们来读一封这位意大利人在封国后，写给世界一封信，这位意大利人希望通过这封信来唤起更多的国家和人们进行关注，希望对这场疫情更加的重视。

I am writing to you from Bergamo, Italy, at the heart of the coronavirus crisis.

我正在意大利这次新冠疫情的中心贝加莫市写这篇文章，希望大家都能看到。

The news media in the US has not captured the severity of what is happening here. I am writing this post because each of you, today, not the government, not the school district, not the mayor, each individual citizen has the chance, today to take actions that will deter the Italian situation from becoming your own country’s reality.

美国新闻媒体的报道并没有充分呈现意大利疫情的严重状况。我写此文的原因是，今天，你们每一个人——不是政府，不是学区，不是市长，而是每一个公民——都还有机会马上采取行动，不要让你们的国家重蹈意大利的覆辙。

The only way to stop this virus is to limit contagion. And the only way to limit contagion is for millions of people to change their behavior today.

阻止病毒肆虐的唯一方法就是限制传播。而限制传播的唯一方法就是千千万万人改变现在的行为方式。

If you are in Europe or the US you are weeks away from where we are today in Italy.

如果你们目前在欧洲或美国，也许几周之后，你们所处之地就会像今天的意大利一样了。

I can hear you now. “It’s just a flu. It only affects old people with preconditions”。我似乎能听到有人说：“这只是个流感。原本身体就不好的老人才会被传染上。”

There are 2 reasons why Coronavirus has brought Italy to it’s knees. First it is a flu is devastating when people get really sick they needweeks of ICU – and, second, because of how fast and effectively it spreads. There is 2 week incubation period and many who have it never show symptoms.

新冠病毒令意大利几无招架之力，原因有二。第一，这种病毒极具破坏性——重症患者要接受好几周的重症监护；第二，这种病毒传播速度快，传播效率高。病毒潜伏期为两周，而病毒携带者中有很多始终没有出现症状。

When Prime Minister Conte announced last night that the entire country, 60 million people, would go on lock down, the line that struck me most was “there is no more time.” Because to be clear, this national lockdown, is a hail mary. What he means is that if the numbers of contagion do not start to go down, the system, Italy, will collapse.

昨晚意大利总理孔特宣布将封闭意大利全国——这意味着6000万意大利人将限制出行——他的讲话中，我印象最深的一句就是“我们没有时间了”。很显然，封国是孤注一掷之举。他的意思是，如果传染人数不能尽快开始减少，整个意大利就完了。

Why? Today the ICUs in Lombardy are at capacity – more than capacity. They have begun to put ICU units in the hallways. If the numbers do not go down, the growth rate of contagion tells us that there will be thousands of people who in a matter of a week? two weeks? who will need care. What will happen when there are 100, or a 1000 people who need the hospital and only a few ICU places left?

为什么这么说？今天，伦巴第大区的重症监护病房已经满载——甚至超载了。医院已经开始把重症监护病房安置在走廊里。如果传染人数还不减少，按照目前的传染增长速度，也就一周或是两周吧，就会有成千上万人需要就医。如果到时有100人或者1000人需要入院治疗但重症监护病房已所剩无几，会出现什么状况？

On Monday a doctor wrote in the paper that they have begun to have to decide who lives and who dies when the patients show up in the emergency room, like what is done in war. This will only get worse.

星期一，有位医生在报纸上发表文章说，当病人一个接一个送进急诊室时，医生们已经像在战场上一样，必须决定先救谁——决定谁生谁死。状况只会越来越糟。

There are a finite number of doctors, nurses,medical staff and they are getting the virus. They have also been working non-stop, non-stop for days and days. What happens when the doctors, nurses and medical staff are simply not able to care for the patients, when they are not there?

医生、护士等医护人员的数量是有限的，而且他们也有人被感染了。这些日子他们夜以继日地工作。如果有一天，这些医护人员再也无力照顾病人，无法坚守岗位，又会出现什么状况？

You have a chance to make a difference and stop the spread in your country. Push for the entire office to work at home today, cancel birthday parties, and other gatherings, stay home as much as you can.

你们还有机会做些什么，为阻止病毒在你们国家传播贡献一份力量。请让各个机构的员工现在都在家工作，请取消生日聚会等各种聚会，请尽可能待在家里。

If you have a fever, any fever, stay home. Push for school closures, now. Anything you can do to stop the spread, because it is spreading in your communities – there is a two week incubation period – and if you do these things now you can buy your medical system time.

如果发烧了，出现任何发烧症状，请一定待在家里。请现在就关闭学校。请竭尽全力阻止病毒传播，因为它会不知不觉在你们社区传播开——它可有两周的潜伏期——如果现在就开始这么做，能够为你们的医疗系统争取更多的准备时间。

And for those who say it is not possible to close the schools, and do all these other things, locking down Italy was beyond anyone’s imagination a week ago.

有人会说，关闭学校不可能，刚刚说的那些事都不可能做到——我想对他们说，一周以前，有谁会想到整个意大利都要封闭。

Soon you will not have a choice, so do what you can now.

很快你们就没有选择的余地了，所以，现在就尽全力行动吧。