原作者: Reis Thebault , Alex Horton and Lateshia Beachum
刊登在2020年2月28日的华盛顿邮报
While there is no vaccine for covid-19, preventive steps andawareness are the best tools to prepare and protect yourself in theevent of an outbreak.
虽然没有针对covid-19的疫苗,但预防措施和意识是在疫情爆发时做好准备和保护自己的最佳工具。
There are the exam gloves, the surgical masks, the dubioussupplements and the deceptive disinfectants. If unchecked Internetinformation is any guide,there’s an inexhaustible list of productsyou should buy to prepare for the spread of coronavirus in theUnited States — which, according to U.S. health officials, appearsinevitable.
But here’s the thing: The virus may be novel, but you really don’tneed to buy anything new orspecial to brace for it. The WashingtonPost spoke to epidemiology experts, and they said the mostimportant aspect of preparedness costs nothing at all —calm.
More than 60 people were confirmed to have the virus in the UnitedStates, most of them evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruiseship.On Friday, Oregon officials said a person in WashingtonCounty withno recent history of travel or known contact with infectedpeopletested positive for the illness, marking the third case ofunknown origin inthe United States and widening the scope of peoplewho should be tested forcovid-19, as the disease the virus causesis called. The other two are in California.
While the number ofU.S. cases is still low, experts say now is agood time for individuals, businesses, health-care systems andschools to reexamine their pandemic preparedness plans to make surethey’re ready.
So here’s what doctors, researchers and the CDC say you can do now— and in the event of a future outbreak — to prepare and protectyourself.
以下是医生,研究人员和疾病预防控制中心的建议,使您现在为万一将来爆发的情况下做好准备并保护自己。
‘Don’t panic’
“不要惊慌”
Timothy Brewer is a professor of epidemiology and medicine atUCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and its David Geffen Schoolof Medicine, yet his central piece of adviceis not exactlymedical.
“Don’t panic,” he said.“There’s no value in panicking or tellingpeople to be afraid. Don’t let fear and emotion drive the responseto this virus. That can be extremely difficult because it is new,and we’re still learning about it, but don’t allow fear of what wedon’t know about the virus to overwhelm what we do know.”
Brewer said it’s important to remember that covid-19 is arespiratory disease, as is influenza,and while there’s not avaccine for it, there are tried-and-true ways to deal with thistype of illness — which we will cover here.
Saskia V. Popescu is a senior infection-prevention epidemiologistfor a Phoenix-based hospital system. “The most important thingright now is to remain calm,” she said. “Remember, we don’t havethat many cases in the U.S., and prevention strategies for thiscoronavirus are not new. We’ve been doing them for years.”
Saskia V. Popescu是位于凤凰城的医院系统的高级感染预防流行病学家。她说:“目前最重要的是保持冷静。”“请记住,我们在美国没有那么多病例,这种冠状病毒的预防策略并不新鲜。我们已经做了很多年了。''
The basics
基础信息
A few minutes into a phone call with a reporter, Brewer paused,coughed and then explained himself. “I’m currently recovering froma non-covid respiratory virus,” he said.
But the precaution she took when fighting his influenza-likeillness are no different from what people should be doing every dayto stave off coronavirus and other respiratory diseases, Brewersaid.
You have seen the guidance before: Wash your hands regularly. Coveryour nose and mouth when you sneeze. And when you’re sick, stayhome from work or school and drink lots of fluids.
您之前已经看过指导:经常洗手。打喷嚏时要掩住口鼻。当您生病时,请待在家里并多喝水。
The CDC recommends washing with soap and water for at least 20secondsafter using the bathroom, before eating and after blowingyour nose orsneezing. It also advises not to touch your eyes, noseand mouth and to cleanobjects and surfaces you touch often — acommon household cleaner will suffice.
“These are all things you can do to prevent the spread of prettymuch any respiratory virus,” Brewer said.
And for the record,he added, he stayed home sick last week.
“I practiced what I preached,” Brewer said.
布鲁尔说:“您可以采取所有这些措施来防止几乎任何呼吸道病毒的传播。”
他补充说,上周他病假在家。
布鲁尔说:“我按我说的去做了。”
Keep the shopping cart light
不用大量购物
You probably don’t need to buy anything new, but if you’re alreadyon your way to the drug store, Brewer has some advice.
您可能不需要购买任何新东西,但是如果您已经在去药店的路上,布鲁尔提供了一些建议。
“Don’t go crazy,” he said. “You don’t need to go out and stock upon lots of things.”
他说:“不要疯狂购物。” “您不需要外出买很多东西囤积。”
And those surgical masks? If you’re not sick, you don’t need towear them — and you certainly don’t need to buy every box yourlocal pharmacy has in stock.
至于一次性外科口罩, 如果您没有生病,则无需戴。当然,也不必把本地药房有库存买空。
“The main point of the mask is to keep someone who is infected withthe virus from spreading it to others,” Brewer said.
布鲁尔说:``口罩的主要目的是防止感染了病毒的人传播给他人。''
The CDC agrees, writing on its website: “CDC does not recommendthat people who are well wear a face mask to protect themselvesfrom respiratory diseases.”
Common surgical masks block the droplets coming out of a sickperson from getting into the air, but they are not tight enough toprevent what’s already in the air from getting in.
普通的外科口罩可以阻止病人的飞沫进入空气中,但是它们不够紧,无法阻止空气中的气雾进入。
There are specialized masks — known as N95 masks because theyfilter out 95 percent of airborne particles — that are moreeffective, and some online retailers are sold out of them. Butthere’s a problem: The masks are difficult to use without training.They must be fitted and tested to work properly.
“If you just buy them at CVS, you’re not going to do all that,”Brewer said. “You’re not going to get it fit-tested, and you’re notgoing to be wearing it properly, so all you’ve done is spend a lotof money on a very fancy face mask.”
The same goes for exam gloves, Brewer said, which can getcontaminated just like our hands. There’s no need for them ifyou’re washing your hands properly and often, he said.
If you’re itching to buy something, you can stick to the typicalrespiratory-virus medicine: decongestants, anti-inflammatory drugsand acetaminophen for fevers.
如果您实在想买点东西,可以买典型的呼吸道病毒药物:减充血药,抗炎药和退烧药。
‘Practice makes permanent’
习惯成自然
Popescu has had a bag packed since she was in graduate school — ifshe didn’t have one, she said, she would feel like a badpublic-health-emergency advocate. She explained that one of thebest things you can do to prepare for any emergency, including acoronavirus outbreak, is put together an emergency kit.
Hers contains a first-aid kit, flashlights, a space blanket, anexternal battery for her cellphone, a change of clothes and extrafood for her dog. The CDC has a useful checklist for families.
她的应急包里有急救包,手电筒,太空毯,手机外接电池,换洗衣服和狗食。CDC有一个有用的家庭清单。
It’s also important to have plans in place in case the outbreakdisrupts your daily routines, Popescu said. You should be askingyourself: What if schools close for a week or two? What if thereare issues with public transportation? What if I have to work fromhome or stay at work late?
You should have a plan for child care, for getting to work and forfeeding pets, she said.
“A lot of preparedness is planning ahead of time,” Popescu said.“Practice makes permanent. If I have a plan, that means I don’thave to panic.”
波佩斯库说:“很多准备工作要提前进行。” 习惯成自然。如果我有计划,那就意味着我不必惊慌。”
And it’s good advice in general, she added, not just in the age ofcoronavirus.
她补充说,这是一个很好的建议,不仅在冠状病毒时代。
“This is a good reminder to go through your resources and yourplans so that, should it get more serious, you are not taken offguard,” she said. “People think they need to go out and buy stuff,but so much of it is just having a plan.”
Health officials have stressed keeping your distance from peoplewho are sick, especially when it comes to respiratory viruses.
卫生官员强调要与病人保持距离,尤其是在呼吸道病毒方面。
And because there is no medical solution for the coronavirus,preventive steps and awareness are really the best tools at yourdisposal, said Stanley Perlman, an infectious-disease expert at theUniversity of Iowa.
It is worth considering limiting exposure to large groups,especially during flu season.“Any congregation of people is a setupfor spreading an infectious agent,” he said.
值得考虑限制接触大型人群,尤其是在流感季节。他说:“任何人的聚集都是传播传染媒介的条件。”
Most of us like to look at our smart phones and wear headphones,but in confined spaces, such as mass transit, it’s important tolook around and see what’s going on, see where everyone’s hands aregoing and make a mental note to wash up later.
“We remember hand-washing at home but not when we get off a subwayor leave the grocery store,” Popescu said. She also recommendsavoiding the middle of a packed train car and doing your best toturn away if someone is coughing nearby.
But awareness cuts both ways. While the United States is likely tohave more coronavirus cases, she said, it is important not topanic. “Just because someone has the sniffles or has a cough, itdoesn’t mean they have the coronavirus,” she said. “There are a lotof respiratory viruses.”
While the sr is spreading rapidly, so is misinformation about it.Popescu and other experts call this an “infodemic,” and it can beas harmful as any disease.
“People are more click-susceptible during these events becausethere’s more info and people aren’t sure who to trust,” Universityof Washington researcher Jevin West told The Post this month.
Look to trust worthy sources, such as the CDC, the World HealthOrganization and local health departments, to stay informed,Popescu said — not the anonymous user doling out advice in Twittermentions.
The frenzy over what the virus could mean for the global economycaused the worst weekly loss for stocks since the 2008 financialcrisis. While some families might be concerned about money tied upin the market, making drastic decisions is unnecessary, accordingto Xi Chen, assistant professor of public and global health andeconomics at the Yale School of Public Health.
“The key thing is how long [the stock plunge] can last,” he said.“If it’s short term, it might not affect the supply chain.”
他说:“关键是[股票暴跌]能持续多长时间。” “如果是短期的,则可能不会影响供应链。”
Chen pointed to severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known asSARS, which affected 24 countries in Asia, Europe and North andSouth America in the early 2000s, as a time when the marketsuffered for about a quarter before recovering with very stronggrowth.
The coronavirus includes flu like symptoms, such as fever, coughand shortness of breath, according to the CDC. Getting a flu shotcould easepeople’s concerns about the new virus and also helphealth professionals, said Albert Ko, department chair andprofessor of epidemiology and medicine at the Yale School of PublicHealth.
“The best thing people can do is get immunized for influenza tofree up services for people who come in with coronavirus,” he said,noting that initial signs of illness for flu and coronavirusclosely mirror each other. “When we’re testing people [forcoronavirus], it reduces the noise about who has it.”
On college campuses, at a music conservatory, in Chineserestaurants, among the ranks of a famous dance troupe and onstreets every day, Asians have reported a rise in aggression, microand macro.
As the coronavirus has spread, so has anti-Asian prejudice.
随着冠状病毒的传播,反亚裔的偏见也传播了。
The WHO has urged government agencies to do what they can toprevent discrimination against specific populations, sincestigmatization can fuel the spread of the outbreak by drivingmarginalized individuals to hide infection and avoid seekingtreatment.
“Remember to not let fear override your common humanity about howyou treat other people,” Brewer said. “Just remember we’re all inthis together. This is a virus. It does not think. It is notplanning. We shouldn’t be blaming our neighbors or our fellowcolleagues or people in the community because a virus happens toexist and is spreading.”