Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19

2020 年最佳长读：关于 COVID-19 的写作

2020 年最佳长读：关于 COVID-19 的写作 · 2020-12-14 · 官方页

All through December, we’re featuring Longreads’ Best of 2020.

整个 12 月，我们都会精选 Longreads 的 2020 年最佳作品。

This year, our editors featured many COVID-19 stories from across the web, and below, we’ve narrowed down 11 picks that really resonated with us.

今年，我们的编辑精选了网络上的许多 COVID-19 故事，下面我们筛选出了 11 个真正引起我们共鸣的精选故事。

This roundup is focused on reported features; we initially included a few pandemic essays in this category, but those will instead appear in the upcoming Best of Essays list.

本综述重点关注报告的功能；我们最初在此类别中包含了一些流行病论文，但这些论文将出现在即将推出的最佳论文列表中。

If you like these, you can sign up to receive our weekly email every Friday.

如果您喜欢这些，您可以注册以每周五接收我们的每周电子邮件。

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## How the Pandemic Defeated America (Ed Yong, The Atlantic)

## 大流行病如何击败美国（Ed Yong，《大西洋月刊》）

The Atlantic‘s coverage of COVID-19 was exceptional this year, and Yong’s deep, thoughtful September feature lays it all out.

《大西洋月刊》今年对 COVID-19 的报道非同寻常，Yong 的 9 月份深度、深思熟虑的专题报道将这一切都一一展现。

How did the U.S. get here?

美国是怎么走到这一步的？

Everything that went wrong was predictable and preventable, and despite all of its resources and scientific expertise, America’s leaders failed monumentally to control the virus at every turn.

一切出错的事情都是可以预测和预防的，尽管美国拥有丰富的资源和科学专业知识，但美国领导人却在每一次控制病毒方面都失败了。

The coronavirus found, exploited, and widened every inequity that the U.S. had to offer.

冠状病毒发现、利用并扩大了美国所带来的一切不平等。

Elderly people, already pushed to the fringes of society, were treated as acceptable losses.

已经被推到社会边缘的老年人被视为可以接受的损失。

Women were more likely to lose jobs than men, and also shouldered extra burdens of child care and domestic work, while facing rising rates of domestic violence.

女性比男性更有可能失业，而且还要承担额外的育儿和家务负担，同时面临家庭暴力发生率上升的问题。

In half of the states, people with dementia and intellectual disabilities faced policies that threatened to deny them access to lifesaving ventilators.

在一半的州，痴呆症和智力障碍患者面临着可能无法获得救生呼吸机的政策。

Thousands of people endured months of COVID‑19 symptoms that resembled those of chronic postviral illnesses, only to be told that their devastating symptoms were in their head.

数千人忍受了数月的 COVID-19 症状，这些症状类似于慢性病毒后疾病的症状，却被告知他们的毁灭性症状是在他们的头脑中。

Latinos were three times as likely to be infected as white people.

拉丁裔被感染的可能性是白人的三倍。

Asian Americans faced racist abuse.

亚裔美国人面临种族主义虐待。

Far from being a “great equalizer,” the pandemic fell unevenly upon the U.S., taking advantage of injustices that had been brewing throughout the nation’s history.

这场大流行远不是一个“伟大的均衡器”，而是利用了美国历史上一直在酝酿的不公正现象，不均匀地降临到美国身上。

## Inside the Nightmare Voyage of the Diamond Princess (Doug Bock Clark, GQ)

## 钻石公主号的噩梦之旅（Doug Bock Clark，GQ）

Another devastating read, “The Pariah Ship” by Michael Smith, Drake Bennett, and K.

另一本毁灭性的读物是迈克尔·史密斯、德雷克·贝内特和 K. 所著的《贱民船》。

Oanh Haat, recounts the nightmare journey of Holland America’s MS Zaandam.

Oanh Haat 讲述了荷美号 MS Zaandam 号的噩梦之旅。

The pandemic has exposed the flaws of tourism, and cruise ships are a symbol of the disastrous effects that COVID-19 has had on the travel industry as a whole.

疫情暴露了旅游业的缺陷，而游轮则是COVID-19对整个旅游业造成灾难性影响的象征。

Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess, which departed on January 20 this year from Japan’s Port of Yokohama, was the first ship to suffer a major outbreak.

公主邮轮公司的钻石公主号于今年1月20日从日本横滨港出发，是第一艘遭受重大疫情影响的邮轮。

Clark’s account of the voyage and subsequent quarantine of the ship’s 3,711 passengers and crew is riveting yet terrifying.

克拉克对这次航行以及随后对船上 3,711 名乘客和船员进行隔离的描述引人入胜，但也令人恐惧。

He weaves stories of numerous people on board, from the more-privileged (a pair of traveling couples called the “Four Amigos”) to the overworked and underprotected (like security crewmember Sonali Thakkar).

他编织了船上无数人的故事，从更有特权的人（一对被称为“四个朋友”的旅行夫妇）到劳累过度且缺乏保护的人（如保安人员索纳利·塔卡）。

His reporting of the U.S. government’s response is superb, especially from the perspective of Dr. James Lawler, the infectious-disease expert called in to lead the evacuation of American passengers back to the U.S. We also get a glimpse of what the experience is like for the ship’s captain, Gennaro Arma, who was eventually the last person to disembark.

他对美国政府应对措施的报道非常棒，特别是从传染病专家詹姆斯·劳勒博士的角度来看，他是受邀领导美国乘客疏散回美国的人。我们还了解到了船长根纳罗·阿玛的经历，他最终是最后一个下船的人。

The Amigos, reduced now to three, along with the 325 other American evacuees, were still waiting on the buses.

现在，Amigos 和其他 325 名美国撤离人员仍在巴士上等候。

They had spent three hours idling on the pier and then, once they drove to the airport, sat on the tarmac for two more hours.

他们在码头上闲逛了三个小时，开车到机场后，又在停机坪上坐了两个小时。

Now, as the delay extended into a sixth hour, the passengers were nearing revolt.

现在，延误已持续到第六个小时，乘客们几乎要反抗了。

They were exhausted.

他们已经筋疲力尽了。

And more problematically for the largely elderly passengers: The buses had no bathrooms.Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., where it was still Sunday afternoon, the fate of the waylaid evacuees was being decided.

对于大多数老年乘客来说，更大的问题是：公共汽车没有卫生间。与此同时，在华盛顿特区，当时还是周日下午，被困撤离者的命运正在决定。

Around the time the passengers were exiting the Diamond Princess, Japanese officials had blindsided their American counterparts with the news that some of the passengers boarding the buses had actually tested positive several days before.

在乘客们离开钻石公主号时，日本官员出其不意地宣布，一些登上巴士的乘客实际上在几天前就已经检测出阳性。

Soon many of the highest-level members of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response team, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, were arguing about what to do.

很快，包括安东尼·福奇博士在内的特朗普政府冠状病毒应对小组的许多最高级别成员都在争论该怎么做。

Representatives from the CDC continued to fear spreading the virus.

疾病预防控制中心的代表仍然担心病毒传播。

William Walters, the deputy chief medical officer for the State Department, wanted to bring everyone home anyway.

国务院副首席医疗官威廉·沃尔特斯无论如何都想把所有人带回家。

Those urging the evacuation noted that the planes had been prepared with isolation units to contain the sick.As the debate raged, the evacuees were demanding to be let off the buses, quarantine be damned, to find a bathroom.

那些敦促疏散的人指出，飞机上已经准备好了隔离装置来容纳病人。随着争论的激烈进行，疏散人员要求下飞机，去寻找一个洗手间，隔离是该死的。

Carl was breathing so hard his masked breath fogged his glasses as he strained to control his bladder.

卡尔呼吸困难，他用力控制膀胱，面罩下的呼吸模糊了他的眼镜。

Some seniors were crying.

一些前辈都哭了。

Finally, a few were allowed to relieve themselves in bottles beside the bus or were brought to a nearby terminal.

最后，一些人被允许在公共汽车旁边的瓶子里大小便，或者被带到附近的终点站。

The Amigos, reduced now to three, along with the 325 other American evacuees, were still waiting on the buses.

现在，Amigos 和其他 325 名美国撤离人员仍在巴士上等候。

They had spent three hours idling on the pier and then, once they drove to the airport, sat on the tarmac for two more hours.

他们在码头上闲逛了三个小时，开车到机场后，又在停机坪上坐了两个小时。

Now, as the delay extended into a sixth hour, the passengers were nearing revolt.

现在，延误已持续到第六个小时，乘客们几乎要反抗了。

They were exhausted.

他们已经筋疲力尽了。

And more problematically for the largely elderly passengers: The buses had no bathrooms.

对于大多数老年乘客来说，更大的问题是：公共汽车没有卫生间。

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., where it was still Sunday afternoon, the fate of the waylaid evacuees was being decided.

与此同时，在华盛顿特区，当时还是周日下午，被伏击的撤离者的命运正在决定。

在乘客们离开钻石公主号时，日本官员出其不意地宣布，一些登上巴士的乘客实际上在几天前就已经检测出阳性。

Soon many of the highest-level members of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response team, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, were arguing about what to do.

很快，包括安东尼·福奇博士在内的特朗普政府冠状病毒应对小组的许多最高级别成员都在争论该怎么做。

Representatives from the CDC continued to fear spreading the virus.

疾病预防控制中心的代表仍然担心病毒传播。

William Walters, the deputy chief medical officer for the State Department, wanted to bring everyone home anyway.

国务院副首席医疗官威廉·沃尔特斯无论如何都想把所有人带回家。

Those urging the evacuation noted that the planes had been prepared with isolation units to contain the sick.

那些敦促撤离的人指出，飞机上已经准备好了隔离装置来收容病人。

As the debate raged, the evacuees were demanding to be let off the buses, quarantine be damned, to find a bathroom.

随着争论的激烈进行，撤离者要求下车，去寻找一个卫生间，尽管隔离也该死。

Carl was breathing so hard his masked breath fogged his glasses as he strained to control his bladder.

卡尔呼吸困难，他用力控制膀胱，面罩下的呼吸模糊了他的眼镜。

Some seniors were crying.

一些前辈都哭了。

Finally, a few were allowed to relieve themselves in bottles beside the bus or were brought to a nearby terminal.

最后，一些人被允许在公共汽车旁边的瓶子里大小便，或者被带到附近的终点站。

## How New Jersey’s First Coronavirus Patient Survived (Susan Dominus, The New York Times Magazine)

## 新泽西州首例冠状病毒患者如何幸存（Susan Dominus，纽约时报杂志）

This narrative of James Cai, a medical professional and New Jersey’s first COVID-19 patient, is moving and brilliantly reported.

医学专家、新泽西州首例 COVID-19 患者 James Cai 的故事令人感动且精彩报道。

We’re introduced to Cai as he experiences symptoms in early March, when doctors on the East Coast still viewed the virus “as an ominous but distant threat.” We’re there alongside him when he realizes, from a tweet he reads on TV about a man at a hospital, that he may be New Jersey’s first COVID-19 patient (“Please, God, don’t let that be me, he thought”).

我们是在蔡三月初出现症状时认识他的，当时东海岸的医生仍然认为这种病毒“是一种不祥但遥远的威胁”。当他从电视上读到的一条关于一名医院男子的推文中，他意识到自己可能是新泽西州首例 COVID-19 患者时，我们就在他身边（“上帝啊，请不要让我成为这样的人，他想”）。

With advice and help from Chinese and Chinese-American doctors, and the use of tools like WeChat and Twitter to share knowledge and call attention to his case, Cai is able to receive the right care.

在中国和美籍华人医生的建议和帮助下，以及利用微信和推特等工具分享知识并引起人们对他的病例的关注，蔡得以得到正确的护理。

It’s a gripping and touching read with a positive ending, though reveals just how much it takes for a person, even one with a lot of support and resources, to advocate for themselves.

这是一本扣人心弦、感人肺腑的读物，有着积极的结局，尽管它揭示了一个人需要付出多少努力，即使是一个拥有大量支持和资源的人，才能为自己辩护。

Cai hoped the remdesivir might help.

蔡希望瑞德西韦能有所帮助。

The hospital had made its own request.

医院也提出了自己的要求。

But he knew that getting approval for compassionate use — which required the manufacturer’s approval as well as F.D.A.

但他知道，获得同情性使用的批准——这需要制造商和 FDA 的批准。

approval — could take time, and he was worried that it would be too late.

批准——可能需要时间，他担心为时已晚。

That day, Huang reached out to every Gilead representative he knew and called on all his doctor friends to do the same.

那天，黄联系了他认识的每一位吉利德代表，并呼吁他所有的医生朋友也这样做。

His former supervising physician at Mount Sinai, Paul Lee, had already written an unsuccessful email to an associate director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Cai’s behalf to try to get him access to the drug.

他在西奈山的前主管医生保罗·李（Paul Lee）已经代表蔡向国家过敏和传染病研究所的一位副所长写了一封电子邮件，试图让他获得这种药物，但没有成功。

Huang posted on a large WeChat group for Chinese and Chinese-American cardiologists: “My name is Yili, great to meet everyone, unfortunately on this occasion,” he introduced himself.

黄在一个华人和美籍华人心脏病专家的大型微信群中发帖说：“我叫伊利，很高兴认识大家，但不幸的是在这个场合，”他自我介绍道。

“I usually don’t post, but my good friend, only 32, health care provider, became this first case in New Jersey.

“我通常不会发帖，但我的好朋友，只有 32 岁的医疗保健提供者，成为新泽西州的第一例。

Please help me with some inputs.” With Cai’s permission, he included a photo of Cai’s CT scan.

请帮我提供一些意见。”经蔡允许，他附上了蔡的 CT 扫描照片。

He also forwarded the scans to another friend, Felix Yang, a cardiac electrophysiologist.

他还将扫描结果转发给另一位朋友、心脏电生理学家菲利克斯·杨(Felix Yang)。

## What Happened in Room 10?

## 10 号房间发生了什么？

(Katie Engelhart, The California Sunday Magazine)

（凯蒂·恩格尔哈特，《加州星期日杂志》）

Engelhart’s investigation into the outbreak at Life Care Center of Kirkland, the nursing home just east of Seattle that became known as the early epicenter of the coronavirus in the U.S., is an essential, emotionally painful read.

恩格尔哈特对柯克兰生命护理中心疫情的调查是一本重要的、情感上痛苦的读物。柯克兰生命护理中心位于西雅图东部，是一家疗养院，后来被称为美国冠状病毒的早期震中。

Forty-six people that lived in or were linked to the facility died, and, at one point during the outbreak, there were 129 cases, including 81 residents and nearly 50 staff and visitors.

该设施内居住或与该设施有关的 46 人死亡，在疫情爆发期间曾一度出现 129 例病例，其中包括 81 名居民以及近 50 名工作人员和访客。

Engelhart asks: Could these people have been saved?

恩格哈特问道：这些人能得救吗？

“The debate now,” she writes, “is whether all that death can be explained by biology and demographics — or whether, in spite of biology and demographics, more nursing-home residents could have been spared.” Her reporting, focused on the trajectories of two patients and roommates, Helen and Twilla, is incredibly in-depth, as is her examination of the larger problems in America’s nursing homes, the government’s response to COVID-19 at all levels, and the temporary solution of “sequester[ing] away the old people” and hoping for the best.

“现在的争论，”她写道，“所有的死亡是否可以用生物学和人口统计学来解释——或者，尽管有生物学和人口统计学的因素，更多的疗养院居民是否可以幸免。”她的报道重点关注了两位患者兼室友海伦（Helen）和特威拉（Twilla）的轨迹，内容非常深入，她对美国疗养院的更大问题、各级政府对 COVID-19 的反应以及“隔离老人”的临时解决方案进行了审视，并希望得到最好的结果。

The illustrated animations by Matt Bollinger and portraits by Jovelle Tamayo add another layer of storytelling.

马特·博林格 (Matt Bollinger) 的插图动画和 Jovelle Tamayo 的肖像画增添了另一层故事讲述。

Montgomery had been shocked to learn that Life Care, of all places, had the virus.

蒙哥马利震惊地发现生命护理中心感染了这种病毒。

The facility was one of the best she had worked with, and she thought its infection-prevention nurse was as good as they come.

该设施是她合作过的最好的设施之一，她认为其感染预防护士非常出色。

But when she arrived at the nursing home, she was startled to see that not everyone was wearing a mask.

但当她到达疗养院时，她惊讶地发现并不是每个人都戴着口罩。

Some nursing aides didn’t even know how to use PPE properly.Between March 3 and March 5, at the height of the Life Care outbreak, there were no doctors in the nursing home to evaluate and treat the dozens of residents who needed to be assessed — and officials at the county, state, and federal level knew it.

一些护理助理甚至不知道如何正确使用个人防护装备。 3月3日至3月5日，在生命护理疫情最严重的时候，疗养院里没有医生来评估和治疗数十名需要评估的居民——县、州和联邦各级的官员都知道这一点。

Montgomery had been shocked to learn that Life Care, of all places, had the virus.

蒙哥马利震惊地发现生命护理中心感染了这种病毒。

The facility was one of the best she had worked with, and she thought its infection-prevention nurse was as good as they come.

该设施是她合作过的最好的设施之一，她认为其感染预防护士非常出色。

But when she arrived at the nursing home, she was startled to see that not everyone was wearing a mask.

但当她到达疗养院时，她惊讶地发现并不是每个人都戴着口罩。

Some nursing aides didn’t even know how to use PPE properly.

一些护理人员甚至不知道如何正确使用个人防护装备。

Between March 3 and March 5, at the height of the Life Care outbreak, there were no doctors in the nursing home to evaluate and treat the dozens of residents who needed to be assessed — and officials at the county, state, and federal level knew it.

3 月 3 日至 5 日，在生命护理疫情最严重的时候，疗养院里没有医生来评估和治疗数十名需要评估的居民——县、州和联邦各级的官员都知道这一点。

## The Body Collectors of the Coronavirus Pandemic (Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker)

## 冠状病毒大流行的尸体收集者（乔纳森·布利策，《纽约客》）

In the first six weeks of the outbreak in New York City, 33 people died of COVID-19 every hour, and workers in hospital morgues and funeral homes struggled to keep up with bodies, lacking storage space, supplies, and equipment.

在纽约市疫情爆发的前六周，每小时就有 33 人死于 COVID-19，医院太平间和殡仪馆的工作人员在缺乏存储空间、用品和设备的情况下难以跟上尸体。

For Sherman’s, a funeral home in Brooklyn, a “busy week” in the before times meant handling about 12 funerals, but in the first week of April, they handled and transported more than 120 bodies.

对于布鲁克林的谢尔曼殡仪馆来说，以前“繁忙的一周”意味着要处理大约 12 场葬礼，但在 4 月的第一周，他们处理和运输了 120 多具尸体。

Blitzer’s piece is grim and harrowing — hard to read at times, but an important look at the often forgotten work of last responders.

布利策的文章冷酷而令人痛苦——有时很难读懂，但却是对最后响应者经常被遗忘的作品的重要审视。

Kasler and his co-workers were also concerned about supplies.

卡斯勒和他的同事也担心供应问题。

They were running low on personal protective equipment—masks, gowns, and gloves.

他们的个人防护装备——口罩、防护服和手套——所剩无几。

Each house call or hospital visit now required at least three pairs of gloves and two gowns.

现在，每次上门或去医院就诊至少需要三副手套和两件长袍。

Zambito and the others needed to shed each item as it came into contact with a contaminated body.

赞比托和其他人需要在接触到受污染的尸体时丢弃每件物品。

A standard pickup, she told me, required one set of P.P.E.

她告诉我，一辆标准皮卡车需要一套个人防护装备。

to retrieve the body, followed by another set to put the body in the van, and yet another to take the body out of the van and bring it into the mortuary.

取回尸体，然后是另一组将尸体放入货车中，然后是另一组将尸体从货车中取出并带入太平间。

Sherman had begun contacting funeral homes in other states to see if he could buy supplies from them.

谢尔曼已经开始联系其他州的殡仪馆，看看是否可以从他们那里购买用品。

He was looking for disinfectant sprays and Clorox wipes.

他正在寻找消毒喷雾剂和高乐氏湿巾。

A cousin of his, in California, had ordered some of the items wholesale and arranged for them to be shipped to Sherman in New York.

他在加利福尼亚州的一个表弟批发订购了一些物品，并安排将它们运往纽约的谢尔曼。

There was also a shortage of caskets.

棺材也短缺。

“They can’t make them quick enough,” Sherman told me.

“他们的速度不够快，”谢尔曼告诉我。

## They Depended on Their Parents for Everything.

## 他们一切都依赖父母。

Then the Virus Took Both.

然后病毒把两者都带走了。

(John Woodrow Cox, The Washington Post)

（约翰·伍德罗·考克斯，《华盛顿邮报》）

I was moved by many beautifully written human-interest stories at the Washington Post, including Greg Jaffe’s portrait of families living in motels outside of Disney World in Florida and other heart-breaking accounts in the “Voices from the Pandemic” series.

《华盛顿邮报》上许多精彩的人文故事令我感动，其中包括格雷格·贾菲（Greg Jaffe）对佛罗里达州迪士尼世界外汽车旅馆中家庭生活的描述，以及“来自流行病的声音”系列中其他令人心碎的报道。

About eight years ago, the Ismael siblings — Nash, 20; Nadeen, 18; and Nanssy, 13 — fled Iraq with their parents, eventually settling in Michigan, which has a large Chaldean community.

大约八年前，伊斯梅尔兄弟姐妹——纳什，20 岁；纳丁，18 岁； 13 岁的 Nanssy 与父母一起逃离伊拉克，最终定居在密歇根州，那里有一个大型迦勒底社区。

John Woodrow Cox shares their story as they struggle with the loss of their mother, Nada Naisan, and their father, Nameer Ayram, who died 20 days apart from COVID-19.

约翰·伍德罗·考克斯 (John Woodrow Cox) 分享了他们的故事，他们因失去母亲 Nada Naisan 和父亲 Nameer Ayram 而痛苦不已，后者在 COVID-19 爆发 20 天后去世。

The loss and sorrow that Cox captures in these conversations and scenes are palpable, while Salwan Georges’ dim-lit photographs of both intimate and ordinary moments in these young people’s lives are haunting.

考克斯在这些对话和场景中捕捉到的失落和悲伤是显而易见的，而萨尔万·乔治在昏暗的灯光下拍摄的这些年轻人生活中亲密和普通时刻的照片令人难以忘怀。

(Another story from Cox, about a couple who lost their daughter in the Sandy Hook shooting, is also a poignant read.)

（考克斯的另一个故事，讲述了一对夫妇在桑迪胡克枪击案中失去女儿的故事，读起来也令人心酸。）

At last, the stone arch over the entrance to White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery came into view.

最后，白教堂纪念公园公墓入口处的石拱门映入眼帘。

The girls arrived first, stepping out of a car into a clear-sky morning, just shy of 70 degrees.

女孩们先到了，下了车，来到了一个晴朗的早晨，气温接近 70 度。

They walked onto the grass of a long, narrow section of memorial plaques, searching for No. 222 among the oval-shaped metal markers pressed into the ground.“I’m not sure which one,” Nanssy told her sister.“Maybe that one over there,” Nadeen replied, looking toward a distant section of unearthed dirt.“Here it is,” Nanssy said, pointing.And there before them was not one grave, but two.

他们走上一片又长又窄的纪念牌匾的草地上，在压入地下的椭圆形金属标记中寻找第 222 号。“我不确定是哪一个，”南西告诉她的妹妹。“也许是那边的那个，”纳丁回答道，望着远处出土的泥土。“就是这里，”南西指着说。在他们面前不是一个坟墓，而是两个。

At last, the stone arch over the entrance to White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery came into view.

最后，白教堂纪念公园公墓入口处的石拱门映入眼帘。

The girls arrived first, stepping out of a car into a clear-sky morning, just shy of 70 degrees.

女孩们先到了，下了车，来到了一个晴朗的早晨，气温接近 70 度。

They walked onto the grass of a long, narrow section of memorial plaques, searching for No. 222 among the oval-shaped metal markers pressed into the ground.

他们走上一段又长又窄的纪念牌匾的草地上，在压在地上的椭圆形金属标记中寻找222号。

“I’m not sure which one,” Nanssy told her sister.

“我不确定是哪一个，”南西告诉她的妹妹。

“Maybe that one over there,” Nadeen replied, looking toward a distant section of unearthed dirt.

“也许是那边的那个，”纳丁回答道，同时看着远处的一处出土的泥土。

“Here it is,” Nanssy said, pointing.

“就是这里，”南西指着说道。

And there before them was not one grave, but two.

在他们面前，不是一座坟墓，而是两座。

## The Man in the Iron Lung (Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, The Guardian)

## 铁肺里的人（琳达·罗德里格斯·麦克罗比，《卫报》）

Paul Alexander contracted polio when he was 6 years old and, while he recovered from the initial infection all those years ago, he became paralyzed from the neck down.

保罗·亚历山大 (Paul Alexander) 6 岁时感染了小儿麻痹症，虽然他从多年前的初次感染中恢复过来，但颈部以下瘫痪了。

Now, in his mid-70s, he is one of only two people in the U.S. that still uses an iron lung.

现在，他已经 70 多岁了，是美国仅有的两个仍在使用铁肺的人之一。

McRobbie traces his extraordinary life, from the 18 torturous months he spent in the polio ward — rows and rows of metal canisters, each encasing a child’s limp body — to growing up and working toward an independent life: going to college, getting a law degree, falling in love, self-publishing a memoir.

麦克罗比追溯了他非凡的一生，从他在小儿麻痹症病房度过的 18 个月的痛苦经历（一排排金属罐，每个金属罐都包裹着一个孩子软弱的身体），一直到他长大并努力过上独立的生活：上大学、获得法律学位、坠入爱河、自行出版回忆录。

Today, Alexander considers the parallels between the polio and the COVID-19 pandemics, and while he’s scared and knows he’s very vulnerable, he tries to stay positive.

今天，Alexander 考虑了脊髓灰质炎和 COVID-19 大流行之间的相似之处，虽然他很害怕并且知道自己非常脆弱，但他努力保持积极的态度。

The next 18 months were torture.

接下来的18个月是酷刑。

Although he couldn’t talk because of the tracheotomy, he could hear the cries of other children in pain.

虽然因为气管切开他无法说话，但他能听到其他孩子痛苦的哭声。

He lay for hours in his own waste because he couldn’t tell the staff he needed to be cleaned.

他在自己的排泄物中躺了几个小时，因为他无法告诉工作人员他需要清理。

He nearly drowned in his own mucus.

他差点被自己的粘液淹死。

His parents visited almost every day, but his existence was unrelentingly boring.

他的父母几乎每天都来看望他，但他的存在却无比无聊。

He and the other children tried to communicate, making faces at each other, but, Paul said: “Every time I’d make a friend, they’d die.”

他和其他孩子试图交流，互相做鬼脸，但是，保罗说：“每次我交到朋友，他们都会死。”

Though this virus, if he gets it, will likely kill him, life hasn’t changed dramatically for Paul since the start of the pandemic.

尽管这种病毒如果感染了他，很可能会杀死他，但自大流行开始以来，保罗的生活并没有发生巨大变化。

He hasn’t been able to venture outside of his lung for more than five minutes in years.

多年来，他每次离开肺部的时间都不能超过五分钟。

As one of his friends told me: “It’s not a strain for him, it’s his life.

正如他的一位朋友告诉我的：“这对他来说不是一种压力，而是他的生活。

This is Mr Shelter-in-Place.” I asked Paul if he is worried about Covid-19.

这是就地庇护所先生。”我问保罗是否担心 Covid-19。

“Sure, sure,” he said.

“当然，当然，”他说。

Then he added: “Well – I don’t sit around and worry about it.

然后他补充道：“嗯——我不会坐视不管，担心它。

I’m dying a lot.

我快要死了。

It doesn’t make any difference.”

这没有什么区别。”

## This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic (Zeynep Tufekci, The Atlantic)

## 这个被忽视的变量是大流行的关键（Zeynep Tufekci，大西洋月刊）

Tufekci’s piece is science writing at its best, tackling and explaining dense and technical concepts to a general audience.

图菲克奇的文章是最好的科学写作，向普通读者解决和解释了密集的技术概念。

How does COVID-19 spread?

COVID-19 如何传播？

What is R0?

R0是什么？

What is k?

k是什么？

What elements are present for super-spreading events to occur?

超级传播事件的发生需要哪些要素？

It’s a fascinating look into overdispersion and clusters.

这是对过度分散和集群的有趣观察。

To return to the mysteries of this pandemic, what did happen early on to cause such drastically different trajectories in otherwise similar places?

回到这场大流行的奥秘，早期发生了什么导致在其他相似的地方出现如此截然不同的轨迹？

Why haven’t our usual analytic tools—case studies, multi-country comparisons—given us better answers?

为什么我们常用的分析工具——案例研究、多国比较——没有给我们更好的答案？

It’s not intellectually satisfying, but because of the overdispersion and its stochasticity, there may not be an explanation beyond that the worst-hit regions, at least initially, simply had a few unlucky early super-spreading events.

这在理智上并不令人满意，但由于过度分散及其随机性，除了受灾最严重的地区（至少在最初）只是发生了一些不幸的早期超级传播事件之外，可能没有其他解释。

It wasn’t just pure luck: Dense populations, older citizens, and congregate living, for example, made cities around the world more susceptible to outbreaks compared with rural, less dense places and those with younger populations, less mass transit, or healthier citizenry.

这不仅仅是运气：例如，与农村、人口密度较低的地方以及人口较年轻、公共交通较少或公民健康的地方相比，人口稠密、老年人和聚集性生活使世界各地的城市更容易受到疫情爆发的影响。

But why Daegu in February and not Seoul, despite the two cities being in the same country, under the same government, people, weather, and more?

但是为什么二月份是大邱而不是首尔，尽管这两个城市位于同一个国家，有相同的政府、人民、天气等等？

As frustrating at it may be, sometimes, the answer is merely where Patient 31 and the megachurch she attended happened to be.

有时，令人沮丧的是，答案仅仅是 31 号病人和她参加的大型教堂碰巧所在的地方。

## “It’s a National Tragedy”: What a Devastating Covid-19 Outbreak at a California Slaughterhouse Reveals about the Federal Government’s Failed Pandemic Response (Nick Roberts and Rosa Amanda Tuirán; The Counter)

##“这是一场国家悲剧”：加州屠宰场爆发的一场毁灭性的 Covid-19 疫情揭示了联邦政府在应对流行病方面的失败（Nick Roberts 和 Rosa Amanda Tuirán；The Counter）

As of December 8, at least 1,231 meatpacking and food-processing plants have confirmed cases of COVID-19, including over 75,000 meatpacking workers.

截至 12 月 8 日，至少有 1,231 家肉类包装和食品加工厂确诊了 COVID-19 病例，其中包括超过 75,000 名肉类包装工人。

At least 340 have died.

至少有340人死亡。

But federal and state regulatory agencies like Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have not done much to hold meatpackers, like the One World Beef slaughterhouse in Brawley, California, accountable.

但职业安全与健康管理局 (OSHA) 等联邦和州监管机构并没有采取太多措施来追究肉类加工商的责任，例如加利福尼亚州布劳利的 One World 牛肉屠宰场。

This investigation at The Counter exposes the lack of COVID-19-specific safety regulations in these facilities, the culture of fear in these workplaces, and, ultimately, the industry’s focus on profit over people, even during a pandemic.

The Counter 的这项调查暴露了这些设施缺乏针对 COVID-19 的安全法规、这些工作场所的恐惧文化，以及最终该行业即使在大流行期间也对利润的关注。

Providing personal protective equipment and administering temperature screens were important steps taken by One World Beef.

提供个人防护装备和管理体温筛查是 One World Beef 采取的重要步骤。

But the experts we spoke to for this story detailed numerous other steps that meatpacking facilities can take to make their operations immediately more safe for workers.

但我们在本文中采访的专家详细介绍了肉类包装设施可以采取的许多其他步骤，以确保其操作对工人来说立即变得更加安全。

These include slowing down the trim line, spacing workers out sufficiently, improving ventilation, telling workers when they might have been exposed to the virus, not incentivizing coming to work every single day, and providing routine testing for all workers, especially new hires.

这些措施包括放慢修剪线速度、充分隔离工人、改善通风、告诉工人何时可能接触到病毒、不鼓励每天上班，以及为所有工人（尤其是新员工）提供例行检测。

One World Beef, according to the workers we interviewed, did not take any of these critical steps and, in some cases, did the opposite.The company’s approach to testing turned out to be especially problematic.

根据我们采访的工人的说法，One World Beef 没有采取任何这些关键步骤，在某些情况下，还采取了相反的做法。事实证明，该公司的测试方法尤其存在问题。

Providing personal protective equipment and administering temperature screens were important steps taken by One World Beef.

提供个人防护装备和管理体温筛查是 One World Beef 采取的重要步骤。

But the experts we spoke to for this story detailed numerous other steps that meatpacking facilities can take to make their operations immediately more safe for workers.

但我们在本文中采访的专家详细介绍了肉类包装设施可以采取的许多其他步骤，以确保其操作对工人来说立即变得更加安全。

One World Beef, according to the workers we interviewed, did not take any of these critical steps and, in some cases, did the opposite.

根据我们采访的工人的说法，One World Beef 没有采取任何这些关键步骤，在某些情况下甚至采取了相反的做法。

The company’s approach to testing turned out to be especially problematic.

事实证明，该公司的测试方法尤其存在问题。

“We tested between 300 and 400 people from the facility on that first day,” said Dr. Brian Tyson, the owner of All Valley Urgent Care.Though this was an encouraging step, many employees were confused by the test that was administered.

All Valley Urgent Care 的所有者布莱恩·泰森 (Brian Tyson) 博士表示：“第一天，我们对该机构的 300 至 400 人进行了测试。”虽然这是一个令人鼓舞的步骤，但许多员工对所进行的测试感到困惑。

Rather than the widely publicized nasal swab test, employees received a finger pinprick combined with pulmonary X-rays.

员工接受的不是广泛宣传的鼻拭子测试，而是手指针刺测试和肺部 X 光检查。

The employee confusion was justified: As it turned out, the testing method did not measure if employees were actively infected.

员工的困惑是有道理的：事实证明，测试方法并不能衡量员工是否主动感染。

“We tested between 300 and 400 people from the facility on that first day,” said Dr. Brian Tyson, the owner of All Valley Urgent Care.

“第一天，我们对该机构的 300 至 400 人进行了测试，”All Valley Urgent Care 的所有者布莱恩·泰森 (Brian Tyson) 博士说。

Though this was an encouraging step, many employees were confused by the test that was administered.

尽管这是一个令人鼓舞的步骤，但许多员工对所进行的测试感到困惑。

Rather than the widely publicized nasal swab test, employees received a finger pinprick combined with pulmonary X-rays.

员工接受的不是广泛宣传的鼻拭子测试，而是手指针刺测试和肺部 X 光检查。

The employee confusion was justified: As it turned out, the testing method did not measure if employees were actively infected.

员工的困惑是有道理的：事实证明，测试方法并不能衡量员工是否主动感染。

## The First Shot: Inside the Covid Vaccine Fast Track (Brooke Jarvis, Wired)

## 第一枪：新冠疫苗快速通道内部（布鲁克·贾维斯，《连线》）

“Twenty-five micrograms of fluid, the first and fastest hope for stopping a pandemic that had been officially declared just five days before, diffused into the muscle of his right arm.” This arm belonged to Neal Browning, an engineer in Seattle who was one of the first people in the U.S. to receive a dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

“五天前才正式宣布的二十五微克液体，是阻止大流行的第一个也是最快的希望，扩散到了他右臂的肌肉中。”这只手臂属于西雅图工程师尼尔·布朗宁 (Neal Browning)，他是美国第一批接种 Moderna 的 COVID-19 候选疫苗的人之一。

Jarvis’ deep-dive into the race for a vaccine and the history of vaccine creation and development is engaging and, at times, unexpectedly entertaining (our innate immune system is compared a number of times to a tantrum-throwing Rambo baby).

贾维斯对疫苗竞赛以及疫苗创造和开发历史的深入探讨引人入胜，有时甚至出乎意料地有趣（我们的先天免疫系统多次被比作一个发脾气的兰博婴儿）。

Even with the head start, beginning the trials so quickly required a sprint.

即使取得了领先优势，如此快速地开始试验也需要冲刺。

The news about the virus’s spread, and its effects on those it infected, kept getting scarier.

有关病毒传播及其对感染者影响的消息变得越来越可怕。

It was soon clear that more was riding on the vaccine than anyone had initially realized.

很快人们就发现，疫苗的作用比人们最初意识到的要大得多。

Within two weeks, scientists at Moderna, without being asked, were staying late, working weekends.

两周之内，Moderna 的科学家们在没有被要求的情况下，在周末工作到很晚。

Corbett’s team started growing spike proteins and stocking freezers with vials.

科贝特的团队开始种植刺突蛋白，并在冰箱中储存小瓶。

They immunized mice with the vaccine, then tested their blood for antibodies.

他们用疫苗对小鼠进行了免疫，然后测试了它们血液中的抗体。

A clinical batch was ready by February 7, tested and shipped by February 24, and green-lit for human testing by March 4.

临床批次于 2 月 7 日准备就绪，于 2 月 24 日进行测试并发货，并于 3 月 4 日批准进行人体测试。

(It was a coincidence that the human trials began in what had, by March, become the first hot spot in the US; Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute had been selected to conduct them in late January.) There was never a singular moment, says Hoge, when he realized the researchers had begun an 18-month marathon.

（巧合的是，人体试验在 3 月份成为美国第一个热点地区开始；凯撒永久华盛顿健康研究所被选中在 1 月底进行试验。）Hoge 说，从来没有一个特殊的时刻，他意识到研究人员已经开始了一场为期 18 个月的马拉松。

Instead, “it felt like every day, can you run faster, can you run faster, can you run faster?”

相反，“感觉就像每天，你能跑得更快吗？你能跑得更快吗？你能跑得更快吗？”

## A Pandemic Is Not A War (Eve Fairbanks, HuffPost)

## 流行病不是战争（伊芙·费尔班克斯，《赫芬顿邮报》）

“We’ve never experienced a mass disaster in universal isolation before,” writes Fairbanks.

费尔班克斯写道：“我们以前从未经历过普遍孤立的大规模灾难。”

“There is no precedent for it.” This thoughtful piece explores how people compare the pandemic to war (the virus as enemy, health care workers as foot soldiers) as a way to understand or cope with it.

“这没有先例。”这篇深思熟虑的文章探讨了人们如何将这种流行病与战争（病毒作为敌人，医护人员作为步兵）进行比较，以此来理解或应对它。

Fairbanks talks with four men about their wartime experiences during the Rwandan genocide and civil wars in Somalia, Syria, and Sierra Leone and explains that the reach for metaphors by those who have not experienced war, and the show of bravado and strength, especially from our world’s leaders, sets us up for even greater suffering.

费尔班克斯与四名男子谈论了他们在卢旺达种族灭绝以及索马里、叙利亚和塞拉利昂内战期间的战时经历，并解释说，那些没有经历过战争的人所使用的隐喻，以及虚张声势和力量的表现，尤其是来自我们世界领导人的虚张声势和力量，将使我们遭受更大的痛苦。

One man Fairbanks spoke with, Nuruddin Farah from Somalia, said our use of the war analogy reveals a “‘poverty of the imagination’ about the varieties of pain,” ultimately hindering us from learning new lessons.

费尔班克斯采访的一位来自索马里的努鲁丁·法拉赫表示，我们对战争的类比揭示了“对各种痛苦的‘想象力匮乏’”，最终阻碍了我们学习新的教训。

Fairbanks offers a very wide view, yet makes you contemplate your own personal and individual response to this pandemic.

费尔班克斯提供了非常广阔的视野，但也让您思考自己对这一流行病的个人反应。

One of the points of reaching for this analogy is to deflect attention from epic missteps.

进行这种类比的目的之一是转移人们对重大失误的注意力。

We should not be experiencing widespread shortages of critical supplies or a total lack of coherent strategy from the U.S. government, as if coronavirus were an ambush, a “Pearl Harbor,” which it wasn’t.

我们不应该经历关键物资的普遍短缺，或者美国政府完全缺乏连贯的战略，就好像冠状病毒是一场伏击，一场“珍珠港事件”，但事实并非如此。

“Hindsight is a luxury none of us have in the heat of battle,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, to excuse his administration’s multiple failures to heed expert warnings and shut down schools and businesses.

纽约市市长比尔·白思豪 (Bill de Blasio) 周三表示，“事后诸葛亮是我们所有人在激烈的战斗中都没有的奢侈”，以此为他的政府多次未能听取专家警告并关闭学校和企业开脱。

Nuruddin Farah, a writer from Somalia, lamented that “the only reason nurses and doctors are described as ‘warriors’ right now is because some politicians have failed in providing these doctors and nurses with the equipment that they need.”But what about ordinary people who reach for the “war” analogy?

来自索马里的作家努鲁丁·法拉赫感叹道，“护士和医生现在被称为‘战士’的唯一原因是因为一些政客未能为这些医生和护士提供他们所需的设备。”但是那些拿“战争”来类比的普通人呢？

I told Nuruddin that some friends of mine also sounded relieved to use it.

我告诉努鲁丁，我的一些朋友也对使用它感到放心。

One friend in Seattle told me that he finally felt he could connect to his grandfather’s experience during World War II.

西雅图的一位朋友告诉我，他终于觉得自己可以与祖父在二战期间的经历联系起来。

He had always suspected that, by comparison, he had led too frivolous and privileged a life; that he’d never been tested, never been forced to be truly courageous or heroic.

相比之下，他一直怀疑自己的生活过于轻浮和特权。他从未接受过考验，从未被迫变得真正勇敢或英雄。