好文精选66篇之一——抗击新冠病毒
发表时间：2020-06-27 18:58:45
Here's how to stop the virus from winning
Case surges, overrun hospitals, and a second lockdown this summer could deal a heavy blow to the United States. Here's what we need to turn the tide.
HUMANS CAN BEAT COVID-19 because viruses are simplistic. They can’t move anywhere without assistance. Leave them outside in the open air for very long, and many will disintegrate（vi./vt.碎裂；衰变；瓦解）. All they know is how to multiply（vt./vi，增加；乘）. The problem, of course, is that the coronavirus is adept at(熟练于；擅长)this singular task, and as countries such as the United States have tried to loosen lockdowns and other restrictions, they’ve been jarred by the pandemic’s latest swells.
After months of plateauing at 20,000 to 30,000 new cases per day nationwide, U.S. numbers are rising sharply in 30 states, and overrun medical centers are scrambling to free up beds. In Houston, Texas, where daily cases have surged from 300 to 1,300 in two weeks, health-care workers are moving adult patients to children’s hospitals in a desperate bid to keep up with the surges. Other states are facing similar challenges.
“We are quickly reaching that critical level of capacity in ICU beds and ventilators（通风机） in hospitals in the worst-hit areas,” says Purnima Madhivanan, an infectious disease epidemiologist（n.流行病专家） and associate professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Right now, I think the only thing we can think about is at least starting with harm reduction.”
Harm reduction refers to public health tools and practices—such as needle exchange programs or safe sex with condoms—meant to lessen danger rather than expecting universal compliance （n. 服从；屈从）to rigid guidance. This approach acknowledges that risk levels vary by person and setting, and solutions should be tailored for those individual scenarios.
With the coronavirus, harm reduction techniques include convincing people to wear masks for the riskiest scenarios, such as crowded spaces, but relaxing those guidelines in places where people can stay at safe distances, such as parks. These approaches can go beyond decisions made by individuals, and the principles have already guided some nations and states, including New Zealand, South Korea, and New York State, toward successfully beating back the coronavirus.
“We were stuck, maybe six weeks ago, in this false binary （在这种错误的二态/元中）between staying at home indefinitely and going back to business as usual,” says Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts who has pushed for expanding harm reduction during this crisis. “Risk isn't binary, and we can't expect people to stay home forever, to abstain from（放弃） social contact forever.”
More than half a dozen epidemiologists, virologists, and psychologists contacted by National Geographic agree, and said that struggling governments can win their COVID-19 wars—and perhaps avoid further lockdowns—through more unified planning and messaging, steeped with（沉浸于） harm reduction. They say much of America’s inabilities to waylay （vt.伏击；拦截）COVID-19 stem from humans ignoring our essential advantages over the virus: communication, cooperation, and compromise（n. v. 折中；妥协）.
“The countries that have succeeded have been the ones that have had real political and public will unite,” says Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, whose lab is modeling hospital burden during the crisis. None of these experts believe the COVID-19 war is lost, but government leaders, news media, scientists, and the general public need to shift their mindsets and messaging, because if the virus is victorious, the devastation（n.毁坏；荒废） will be several times worse than what we’re seeing now.
On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it believed 5 to 8 percent of the U.S. population—roughly 26 million people—has already been infected with the coronavirus. Though CDC chief Robert Redfield didn’t provide data, his claim mirrors what similar surveys have revealed: Outside of New York City, the hardest-hit epicenter on the planet, total infections are still relatively low. Even assuming that every infection mentioned by Redfield creates lasting immunity（n. 免疫力；豁免权）—which isn’t necessarily the case—exposure to the virus would need to expand tenfold in most parts of the U.S. to establish herd immunity. (Read why the U.K. backed off on achieving herd immunity through infection alone.)
In other words, the virus still has abundant room to keep spreading. But harm reduction can help stop that from happening.
重点词汇/短语：
1. disintegrate
（v.碎裂；衰变；瓦解）
2. multiply vt./vi，增加；乘
3. be adept at 擅长；熟练于；
4. ventilator通风机； ventilate vt.使通风；使换气；宣布
5. compliance n. 服从；屈从; comply with 遵守；照做；
6. abstain from放弃
7. be steeped with 沉浸于；充满。。。的；
8. waylay vt.伏击；拦截
9. compromise n. v. 折中；妥协
10. immunity（n. 免疫力；豁免权）
11. devastation n.毁坏；荒废 ； devastate vt.毁坏； devastating adj. 毁灭性的
Case surges, overrun hospitals, and a second lockdown this summer could deal a heavy blow to the United States. Here's what we need to turn the tide.
HUMANS CAN BEAT COVID-19 because viruses are simplistic. They can’t move anywhere without assistance. Leave them outside in the open air for very long, and many will disintegrate（vi./vt.碎裂；衰变；瓦解）. All they know is how to multiply（vt./vi，增加；乘）. The problem, of course, is that the coronavirus is adept at(熟练于；擅长)this singular task, and as countries such as the United States have tried to loosen lockdowns and other restrictions, they’ve been jarred by the pandemic’s latest swells.
After months of plateauing at 20,000 to 30,000 new cases per day nationwide, U.S. numbers are rising sharply in 30 states, and overrun medical centers are scrambling to free up beds. In Houston, Texas, where daily cases have surged from 300 to 1,300 in two weeks, health-care workers are moving adult patients to children’s hospitals in a desperate bid to keep up with the surges. Other states are facing similar challenges.
“We are quickly reaching that critical level of capacity in ICU beds and ventilators（通风机） in hospitals in the worst-hit areas,” says Purnima Madhivanan, an infectious disease epidemiologist（n.流行病专家） and associate professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Right now, I think the only thing we can think about is at least starting with harm reduction.”
Harm reduction refers to public health tools and practices—such as needle exchange programs or safe sex with condoms—meant to lessen danger rather than expecting universal compliance （n. 服从；屈从）to rigid guidance. This approach acknowledges that risk levels vary by person and setting, and solutions should be tailored for those individual scenarios.
With the coronavirus, harm reduction techniques include convincing people to wear masks for the riskiest scenarios, such as crowded spaces, but relaxing those guidelines in places where people can stay at safe distances, such as parks. These approaches can go beyond decisions made by individuals, and the principles have already guided some nations and states, including New Zealand, South Korea, and New York State, toward successfully beating back the coronavirus.
“We were stuck, maybe six weeks ago, in this false binary （在这种错误的二态/元中）between staying at home indefinitely and going back to business as usual,” says Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts who has pushed for expanding harm reduction during this crisis. “Risk isn't binary, and we can't expect people to stay home forever, to abstain from（放弃） social contact forever.”
More than half a dozen epidemiologists, virologists, and psychologists contacted by National Geographic agree, and said that struggling governments can win their COVID-19 wars—and perhaps avoid further lockdowns—through more unified planning and messaging, steeped with（沉浸于） harm reduction. They say much of America’s inabilities to waylay （vt.伏击；拦截）COVID-19 stem from humans ignoring our essential advantages over the virus: communication, cooperation, and compromise（n. v. 折中；妥协）.
“The countries that have succeeded have been the ones that have had real political and public will unite,” says Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, whose lab is modeling hospital burden during the crisis. None of these experts believe the COVID-19 war is lost, but government leaders, news media, scientists, and the general public need to shift their mindsets and messaging, because if the virus is victorious, the devastation（n.毁坏；荒废） will be several times worse than what we’re seeing now.
On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it believed 5 to 8 percent of the U.S. population—roughly 26 million people—has already been infected with the coronavirus. Though CDC chief Robert Redfield didn’t provide data, his claim mirrors what similar surveys have revealed: Outside of New York City, the hardest-hit epicenter on the planet, total infections are still relatively low. Even assuming that every infection mentioned by Redfield creates lasting immunity（n. 免疫力；豁免权）—which isn’t necessarily the case—exposure to the virus would need to expand tenfold in most parts of the U.S. to establish herd immunity. (Read why the U.K. backed off on achieving herd immunity through infection alone.)
In other words, the virus still has abundant room to keep spreading. But harm reduction can help stop that from happening.
重点词汇/短语：
1. disintegrate
（v.碎裂；衰变；瓦解）
2. multiply vt./vi，增加；乘
3. be adept at 擅长；熟练于；
4. ventilator通风机； ventilate vt.使通风；使换气；宣布
5. compliance n. 服从；屈从; comply with 遵守；照做；
6. abstain from放弃
7. be steeped with 沉浸于；充满。。。的；
8. waylay vt.伏击；拦截
9. compromise n. v. 折中；妥协
10. immunity（n. 免疫力；豁免权）
11. devastation n.毁坏；荒废 ； devastate vt.毁坏； devastating adj. 毁灭性的
上一篇：雅思口语考什么？
