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Asia may have been right about coronavirus and face masks, and
the rest of the world is coming around
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亚洲在新状病毒和口罩的问题上可能一直是正确的，世界其他地区正在做出改变
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Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN
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CNN，詹姆斯·格里菲思
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Updated 0054 GMT
(0854 HKT) April 2, 2020
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2020年4月2日，北京时间上午08：54
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Hong Kong (CNN)In the coming weeks, if they have not already, your government is likely to begin advising you to wear a face mask to protect against coronavirus. |
香港(CNN) 未来几周内——即便现在还没——你们国家的政府可能会建议你戴上口罩以预防新冠病毒。 |
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For those living in
Asia, such announcements will be a vindication of a tactic that has been adopted across much of the region since the beginning of the crisis
and appears to have been
borne
out by lower rates of
infection and faster containment of outbreaks.
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对于那些生活在亚洲的人们来说，这个趋势是对要求人们戴口罩这一策略的印证。自疫情开始以来，亚洲大部分地区都采取了这种策略，更低的感染率和更有效的控制似乎也证实了它的效果。
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In other parts of
the world, this message may be confusing, coming after weeks of public health
authorities, politicians and media figures confidently claiming masks do not
help and urging people instead to focus on washing their hands and
maintaining social distancing.
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而在其他地区，这一消息可能会有些令人困惑，因为此前几周，公共卫生当局、政界人士和媒体都自信地宣称口罩没有用，而是一直在强调要勤洗手，并保持社交距离。
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The tone of such claims ranged from condescending to frustrated, with the US Surgeon
General Jerome Adams tweeting in late February — in all caps —
“STOP BUYING MASKS!”
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这类言论从最初的建议性的口吻，到最后的无奈，如美国卫生局局长杰罗姆•亚当斯(Jerome Adams) 2月底在推特上——全部用大写字母——就很无奈写道:“不要再买口罩了!”
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“They are NOT
effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if
healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them
and our communities at risk,” he added, in a post that has since been
retweeted over 43,000 times.
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“口罩对于预防公众感染新冠病毒没有效果，而如果医疗工作者在照顾病人时没有口罩带，则会将他们自己和我们的社区置于危险当中，”他补充道——这篇推文被转发了4.3万多次。
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White House task force could soon recommend Americans wear masks |
白宫特别工作组可能很快会建议美国人开始戴口罩 |
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That same week, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), appeared before lawmakers. Asked if people should wear masks, he had a straightforward
answer: “No.”
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同一周，美国疾病控制与预防中心(CDC)主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德(Robert Redfield)出席国会议员的听证会，被问及人们是否应该戴口罩时，他的回答直截了当:“不应该。”
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Now he’s not so
sure. On Monday, Redfield said told NPR that the CDC was reviewing
its guidelines and may
recommend general mask use to
guard against community infection. It’s likely only a matter of time before
other mask holdouts, most prominently the World Health Organization (WHO), follow
suit.
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现在他不那么肯定了。周一，雷德菲尔德对美国国家公共电台表示，疾控中心正在审查其防控指导方针，可能会建议民众带口罩来预防社区传染。其他那些仍持有口罩无用论观点的组织——尤其是世界卫生组织(WHO)，改变口径可能只是时间问题。
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Pivot to protection
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风评转变
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Writing last month, Adrien Burch, an expert in microbiology at
the University of California, Berkeley, noted that “despite hearing that
face masks ‘don’t work,’ you probably haven’t seen any strong evidence to
support that claim. That’s because it doesn’t exist.”
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加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)的微生物学专家阿德里安·伯奇(Adrien Burch)上月撰文指出，“除了听到各种口罩‘没有用’的言论之外，你可能没见过任何有力的证据来支持这一说法。——因为这样的证据根本不存在。”
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In fact, there is
evidence of the exact opposite: that masks help prevent viral infections like the current pandemic.
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事实则证明了相反的观点：口罩有助于预防大流行病病毒的传播。
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Burch pointed to
a Cochrane Review — a systemic analysis of published
studies on a given topic — which found strong evidence during the 2003 SARS
epidemic in support of wearing masks. One study of
community transmission in Beijing found that “consistently wearing a
mask in public was associated with a 70% reduction in the risk of catching
SARS.”
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伯奇提到了一份Cochrane系统分析——对针对某一特定主题发表的各种研究进行的系统性分析——该分析通过对2003年非典疫情的研究，找到了口罩对防控有用的有力证据。北京的一项关于社区传播的研究发现，“在公共场所坚持戴口罩可以降低70%感染非典的风险。”
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SARS, like Covid-19,
is a respiratory illnesses caused by the same family of viruses called
coronavirus.
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和新冠病毒一样，非典也是一种由冠状病毒引起的呼吸系统疾病。
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While SARS spread
around the world, the worst of the epidemic was focused in Asia, particularly
mainland China and Hong Kong. The legacy of this experience
could be seen early on in the current pandemic, as news of a virus spreading
led people across the region to don face masks to protect themselves.
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虽然非典也曾在世界各地蔓延，但最严重的疫情当时是集中在亚洲——特别是中国大陆和香港。这种经历对当地人们的影响在本次大流行病爆发早期就可以看到，一听到有病毒正在传播的消息，人们就第一时间戴上口罩来保护自己。
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From the beginning,
Hong Kong and many other Asian governments have recommended people wear masks
in public, whether they are showing virus symptoms or not.
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从一开始，香港和许多其他亚洲国家的政府就建议人们无论是否出现了带病毒症状，在公共场合都要戴口罩。
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Despite eye-rolling in some parts of the Western press, and talk of Asia’s
“obsession” with face masks, the tactic appears to have contributed
in helping to stem the outbreak.
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虽然某些西方媒体对此表示不屑，并称亚洲人过于“痴迷”口罩，但这一方法似乎确实有助于遏制疫情的蔓延。
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What you need to know about coronavirus
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关于新冠病毒你所需要知道的
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Taiwan, South Korea
and mainland China, all places with widespread mask use, have seen greater
success in preventing major outbreaks or reining them in once they begin than in Europe and
North America where masks are either not used or hard to come by.
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台湾、韩国和中国大陆都在广泛使用口罩，与欧洲和北美相比，这些地区在预防疫情大面积爆发、或爆发后就迅速进行控制方面，取得了更大的成功，而欧洲和北美要么是没有使用口罩，要么就是口罩短缺。
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Speaking to CNN,
Ivan Hung, an infectious diseases specialist at the Hong Kong University
School of Medicine, said that “if you look at the data in Hong Kong,
wearing a mask is probably the most important thing in terms of infection
control.”
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香港大学医学院(Hong Kong University School of Medicine)传染病专家Ivan Hung在接受CNN采访时表示，“如果看一下香港的数据，你会发现，就传染控制而言，戴口罩可能是最重要的防控措施。”
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“And it not
only brings down the cases of coronaviruses, it also brings down the
influenza,” he said. “In fact, this is now the influenza season,
and we hardly see any influenza cases. And that is because the masks actually
protected not only against coronaviruses but also against the influenza
viruses as well.”
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他说:“这不仅减少了新冠病毒的感染病例，同时也减少了流感的感染病例。现在是流感季节，我们很少看到流感患者。这是因为口罩不仅能防止新冠病毒的传播，还能防止流感病毒传播。”
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Wedding dress and evening wear designer Friederike Jorzig adjusts a mannequin wearing a wedding dress at her store in Berlin on Tuesday, March 31. |
3月31日，星期二，婚纱和晚装设计师弗里德里克·乔尔泽(Friederike Jorzig)在她柏林的店面里，为一个名穿着婚纱的人体模特试装 |
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At the beginning of March, Hong Kong had only around 150 cases of
the virus, despite being on the frontlines of the pandemic since it began and
not instituting many of the more draconian population controls seen
elsewhere. The city has only seen a spike recently after people began
returning to the city from Europe and the US.
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3月初，香港只有约150例甲型H1N1流感病例，尽管自疫情爆发以来，香港一直处于疫情爆发的前沿，而且没有像其他地方那样实施许多更为严厉的人口控制措施。最近人们陆续开始从欧洲和美国返港后，这里才出现了病例的激增。
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“Based on the research, face masks are much more likely to
help than to hurt,” according to Burch. “Even if it’s just a
homemade cloth mask, if you wear it correctly and avoid touching it, the
science suggests that it won’t hurt you and will most likely reduce your exposure to the virus.”
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伯奇说:“该研究表明，戴口罩的好处至少比坏处要大得多。即使只是一个自制的布口罩，如果佩戴正确，并尽量避免接触它的表面，科学表明这对你没有坏处，而且这很可能会减少你与病毒的接触。”
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Heightened contradictions
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愈加矛盾的信息
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In its guidance on the coronavirus, the CDC notes that
it spreads primarily “through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneeze,” which
“can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be
inhaled into the lungs.”
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美国疾控中心在关于新冠病毒的指南中指出，该病毒主要通过“受感染者咳嗽或打喷嚏时产生的飞沫”进行传播，这些飞沫“可能落在周围人员的嘴巴或鼻子里，也可能被吸入肺部”。
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The agency
recommends that people who are sick wear a face mask or otherwise attempt
“to cover your coughs and sneezes,” while those caring for them
should also wear a face mask whenever they are in the same room.
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疾控中心建议感染病毒的人要戴上口罩，或至少“咳嗽和打喷嚏”时要遮住口鼻，而护理他们的人员，在与患者共处一室时，也应该戴上口罩。
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Yet, in the same
advice, the CDC said that non-symptomatic “do not need” to wear
face masks, adding that they “may be in short supply and they should be
saved for caregivers.”
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然而，在这份建议中，疾控中心表示，无症状的人“不需要”戴口罩，并补充说，口罩“可能会供应不足，所以应该留给那些医院护人员使用”。
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And this is what has
been so frustrating and confusing for many people, particularly those who advocate for wearing face masks as a precaution. The CDC, along with the WHO and several
other public health bodies and experts, has been simultaneously claiming that
masks do not offer protection in ordinary circumstances, while stating they
are necessary for health workers and caregivers.
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这就是让很多人感到沮丧和困惑的地方，对那些提倡戴口罩作为预防措施的人来说更是如此。美国疾控中心、世界卫生组织以及其他几家公共卫生机构和专家一直声称，口罩在一般情况下不能提供防护，但又说它们对医疗工作者和护理人员来说则是必需的。
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People around the country are sewing masks. And some hospitals, facing dire shortage, |
全国各地的人们都在缝制口罩，一些医院口罩严重短缺 |
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This conflicting advice helped create confusion and no small
amount of hostility towards officials who people felt were lying to them and
putting them at risk. There were numerous replies to
Adams’ tweet about masks in February asking “why are masks
good for healthcare workers but not for the public?”
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这种相互矛盾的建议让人产生了不小的困惑，人们也开始怀疑政府官员，认为他们在撒谎，并将民众置于危险之中。今年2月亚当斯（美国卫生局局长杰罗姆•亚当斯）发的那条关于口罩的推文下面，就有许多人回复说:“为什么口罩对医疗工作者有用，对普通民众就没有用？”
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Writing last month in the New York Times, Zeynep Tufekci, a
professor of information science, said that “to help manage the
shortage, the authorities sent a message that made them untrustworthy.”
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信息科学教授泽伊内普-图菲克奇(Zeynep Tufekci)上个月在《纽约时报》(New York Times)上撰文称，“为了帮助解决口罩短缺的问题，当局发布的一些言论，让人们失去了对他们的信任。”
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“Providing
top-down guidance with such obvious contradictions backfires exactly because lack of trust is what fuels hoarding and misinformation,” she said, adding
that if officials were concerned about shortages, they should have stated
this outright, and asked people to donate masks they had bought to hospitals,
not claimed they were ineffective in the first place.
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她说，“这种带有明显前后矛盾的、自上而下的建议结果往往适得其反，因为信任的缺失，直接导致了信息的误读和民众开始囤积口罩”。泽伊内普还补充说，“如果官员们担心口罩的短缺，他们应该直说，并呼吁人们把手上的口罩捐给医院，而不是一开始就说戴口罩是没用的。”
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“When people
feel as though they may not be getting the full truth from the authorities, snake-oil sellers and price gougers have an easier time.”
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“当人们觉得自己可能无法从政府那里得到全部真相时，投机倒把的人和造假货的人就有机可乘了。”
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Masks work
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口罩有用
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Trying to avoid mask
shortages for healthcare workers appears to have been the main priority of
those arguing against their widespread use. But while the motivation behind this may have been good,
such advice may have actually helped spread the virus, thus adding to the
number of patients overwhelming hospitals.
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努力避免医护人员口罩短缺情况的出现，似乎是那些反对民众使用口罩的主要目的。虽然这样做的动机可能是好的，但这种建议实际上可能会有助于病毒的传播，从而增加患者的数量，为医院带来更大的压力。
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One of the reasons
the CDC’s Redfield gave for potentially changing the guidance on masks is
that the coronavirus can be
spread when people
are asymptomatic, and therefore having everyone covering
their faces — as has been the norm in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia since January — could help rein in transmission.
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疾控中心主任雷德菲尔德关于改变口罩使用的防控指导建议的原因之一是新冠病毒的无症状感染者也可以传播，所以要求所有人都佩戴口——香港和亚洲其他地区自1月开始就在这样做了——是有助于控制病毒传播的。
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That the virus is
spread before people feel sick is not news, however. It’s been widely
supposed since the first
weeks of the outbreak, and evidence
has only grown stronger in recent months.
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然而，病毒在患者感任何症状之前就有其传染性，这并不是什么新闻。在疫情爆发的前几周，人们就普遍是这样认为的，最近几个月证明这种观点的证据也越来越有力。
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And even if there was not asymptomatic transmission, universal or near universal mask wearing has its
uses. As others have noted, instructing only the sick to wear masks is essentially asking people to put a sign on themselves inviting fear and hostility, whereas if everyone wears a mask when outside, the sick are
more likely to do so, thus protecting people around them.
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即使不存在无症状感染者传播的情况，全民或接近全民戴口罩也有它的意义。大家应该已经注意到了，如果只要求感染者戴口罩，无异于是让他们在自己身上贴上一个招来恐惧和敌意的标签，而如果每个人在外面都佩戴口罩，那感染者自然也会佩戴，这样也就起到了保护别人的作用。
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The lack of masks and other protective equipment
in hospitals across the US and
other countries should be remedied as fast as possible. But these shortages were caused by policy
failures and supply chain issues, not a sudden run on 75 cent paper masks by concerned members of the public.
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美国和其他国家医院里口罩和其他防护装备供应不足，必须尽快得到解决。但这些物资的短缺是由政策失误和供应链中断造成的，其原因绝不是少数民众突然抢购75美分一个的纸制口罩。
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As the evidence increasingly comes round in favor of masks, we
must ask how many infections might have been avoided if in January, instead
of saying masks wouldn’t help, officials and the media had instead lobbied
for factories to ramp up domestic production, provided guidance on how
to make masks at home, and asked other countries to donate surplus materials?
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随着证据越来越倾向口罩的有效性，我们不禁要问，如果在1月份，官员和媒体不是宣称口罩无用，而是号召增加国内产能，并提供如何居家制作口罩的指导，呼吁其他国家捐赠富余口罩，那么有多少感染本该是可以避免的？
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