跟着比尔盖茨学英语，雅思口语迅速突破

昨天我在Reddit（一个社交新闻站点）的“问我任何事”栏目上做了一场新冠肺炎（COVID-19）的专题问答。像往常一样，Reddit的网友问了很多聪明的问题，这也是一个很好的机会，让大家得以基于事实来讨论这场大流行病，以及我们能做些什么来预防下一次的疫情（正如我在这场交流中谈到的那样，在这样一个不确定的时期，能有如此积极的互动，真是非常好的一次经历）。本文就是这些问题以及我所做出的回答（篇幅略有调整)。我将在“盖茨笔记（gatesnotes.com）”和其他的社交媒体上分享更多关于新冠肺炎（COVID-19）的信息。同时，祝大家保持健康，勤洗手！

Q:What about the current crisis worries you the most? What gives you the most hope?

当前的疫情危机中，最让你担心的是什么？什么给了你最大的希望？

A: The current phase has a lot of the cases in rich countries. With the right actions including the testing and social distancing (which I call “shut down”) within 2-3 months the rich countries should have avoided high levels of infection. I worry about all the economic damage but even worse will be how this will affect the developing countries who cannot do the social distancing the same way as rich countries and whose hospital capacity is much lower.

当前，很多富裕国家也深陷疫情。如果采取合理的措施，包括检测以及“保持社交距离”（Social Distancing），我称之为“闭关”（shut down），那么在2到3个月之内，这些国家应该就能避免大规模感染。我担心疫情带来的所有经济损失，更糟的是，这一切将如何影响发展中国家，他们无法像富裕国家那样进行隔离，医疗条件也要差很多。

Q:Can you explain briefly what most Americans can do to help other Americans in this moment of crisis?

你能简单说说在此危机时刻大多数美国人应该如何帮助他人吗？

A: A big thing is to go along with the “shut down” approach in your community so that the infection rate drops dramatically to let us go back to normal as soon as possible. Some people like health care workers will be doing heroic work and we need to support them. We do need to stay calm even though this is an unprecedented situation.

关键就是在你的社区采取刚才我提到的“闭关”措施，感染率会因此急剧下降并让我们的生活尽快回复正轨。医护人员的作为堪称英勇，我们需要支持他们的工作。即使这是一个前所未有的情况，我们也需要时刻保持冷静。

Q:Is there any chance that the 18-month timeline for development of a vaccine can be shortened, and by how much?

18个月的疫苗研发周期能缩短吗？能缩短多少？

A: This is a great question. There are over 6 different efforts going on to make a vaccine. Some use a new approach called RNA which is unproven. We will have to build lots of manufacturing for the different approaches knowing that some of them will not work. We will need literally billions of vaccines to protect the world. Vaccines require testing to make sure they are safe and effective. Some vaccines like the flu don’t for the elderly.

这是一个很棒的问题。目前同时进行的疫苗研发方式超过6种。有人在采用一种名为RNA的新方法。针对不同的方法，我们都将进行大量研制，因为我们知道有些方法会失败。我们将需要数十亿剂的疫苗来保护世界。疫苗需要经过测试以确保其安全有效。而有些疫苗，如流感疫苗，并不适合老年人接种。

The first vaccines we get will go to health care workers and critical workers. This could happen before 18 months if everything goes well but we and Dr. Fauci and others are being careful not to promise this when we are not sure. The work is going at full speed.

我们获得的首批疫苗将提供给医护人员及关键岗位的工作人员。如果一切顺利，或许用不了18个月，但我们和安东尼·福奇（美国传染病专家Anthony Fauci博士）以及其他人，都需要谨慎地避免在不确定的情况下做出承诺。疫苗研发的工作正在全速进行。

A: A therapeutic could be available well before a vaccine. Ideally this would reduce the number of people who need intensive care including respirators. The Foundation has organized a Therapeutics Accelerator to look at all the most promising ideas and bring all the capabilities of industry into play. So I am hopeful something will come out of this. It could be an anti-viral or antibodies or something else.

有效的治疗办法应该会比疫苗早出现。理想的情况下，这将减少需要采用呼吸机等措施的重症监护病例。盖茨基金会已经组织了一个“治疗加速器”（Therapeutics Accelerator）项目来发掘最有前景的治疗办法并汇集整个行业的能力。我期待能催生出有前景的方案，可能是抗病毒药物，抗体或其他治疗办法。

One idea that is being explored is using the blood (plasma) from people who are recovered. This may have antibodies to protect people. If it works, it would be the fastest way to protect health care workers and patients who have severe disease.

目前正在探索的一个办法是使用已被治愈病例的血液（血浆），其中或有抗体能起到保护作用。如果确实有效，这将是保护医护人员和危重症患者的最快方法。

Q:As an educator, what is something I can do for my students, especially for my low-income students who don’t have access to technology during this time? I have tried to send reassuring emails (including cat pictures), but I worry about the educational impact, as well as the long-term impact to my students’ wellbeing.

作为教育工作者，我能为学生们做些什么？特别是这段时间无法获得技术支持的低收入学生。我试过给他们发安慰的邮件（还放上了猫咪的图片），但还是担心疫情对教育和学生们的健康会造成长期影响。