健康專家重新審視在公共場合是否應戴口罩的問題

健康專家重新審視在公共場合是否應戴口罩的問題

A few months ago, it may have seemed silly to wear a face mask during a trip to the grocery store. And in fact, the mainline public health message in the U.S. from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been that most people don't need to wear masks.

幾個月前，在去雜貨店的路上戴口罩可能看起來很傻。事實上，美國疾病控制與預防中心傳達的主要公共衛(wèi)生信息是，大多數(shù)人不需要戴口罩。

But as cases of the coronavirus have skyrocketed, there's new thinking about the benefits that masks could offer in slowing the spread. The CDC says it is now reviewing its policy and may be considering a recommendation to encourage broader use.

但隨著冠狀病毒病例的激增，人們開始對口罩在減緩病毒傳播方面的作用產(chǎn)生了新的看法。美國疾病控制與預防中心說，它正在審查自己的政策，并可能考慮建議鼓勵更廣泛的使用(口罩)。

At the moment, the CDC website says the only people who need to wear a face mask are those who are sick or are caring for someone who is sick and unable to wear a mask.

目前，疾控中心的網(wǎng)站說，唯一需要戴口罩的人是那些生病的人，或者是那些正在照顧生病而無法戴口罩的人。

But in an interview with NPR on Monday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that the agency is taking another look at the data around mask use by the general public.

但是在周一接受美國國家公共電臺采訪時，疾病預防控制中心主任羅伯特·雷德菲爾德表示，該機構(gòu)正在重新審視公眾使用口罩的數(shù)據(jù)。

"I can tell you that the data and this issue of whether it's going to contribute [to prevention] is being aggressively reviewed as we speak," Redfield told NPR.

雷德菲爾德對美國國家公共電臺說:“我可以告訴你，就在我們說話的時候，有關數(shù)據(jù)和疫苗是否有助于預防的問題正在受到積極的審查。”

On Tuesday Dr. Deborah Birx, who serves as the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, said the task force is still discussing whether to change to the recommendation on masks.

周二，白宮冠狀病毒應對協(xié)調(diào)員黛博拉·比爾克斯博士表示，工作組仍在討論是否改變口罩的建議。

Other prominent public health experts have been raising this issue in recent days. Wearing a mask is "an additional layer of protection for those who have to go out," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told NPR in an interview.

最近幾天，其他著名的公共衛(wèi)生專家一直在提出這個問題。美國食品藥品監(jiān)督管理局前局長斯科特·戈特利布在接受美國國家公共電臺采訪時表示，戴口罩“為那些不得不出門的人提供了一層額外的保護”。

It's a step you can take — on top of washing your hands and avoiding gatherings.

這是除了洗手和避免聚會你可以采取的一個步驟。

In a paper outlining a road map to reopen the country, Gottlieb argues that the public should be encouraged to wear masks during this current period of social distancing, for the common good.

戈特利布在一份概述重啟國家路線圖的文件中指出，為了共同利益，應該鼓勵公眾在當前社會疏遠時期戴上口罩。

"Face masks will be most effective at slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 if they are widely used, because they may help prevent people who are asymptomatically infected from transmitting the disease unknowingly," Gottlieb wrote. Gottlieb points to South Korea and Hong Kong — two places that were shown to manage their outbreaks successfully and where face masks are used widely.

戈特利布寫道:“如果廣泛使用口罩，它將是減緩SARS-CoV-2傳播的最有效方法，因為它們可能有助于防止無癥狀感染的人在不知情的情況下傳播疾病。”戈特利布指出，韓國和香港這兩個地方被證明成功地控制了疫情，口罩在這兩個地方被廣泛使用。

It turns out that many people who are infected with the virus have no symptoms — or only mild symptoms.

事實證明，許多感染這種病毒的人沒有癥狀，或者只有輕微的癥狀。

What this means is that there's no good way to know who's infected. If you're trying to be responsible when you go out in public, you may not even know that you're sick and may be inadvertently shedding the virus every time you talk with someone, such as a grocery store clerk.

這意味著沒有好的方法知道誰被感染了。如果你想在公共場合負責任，你甚至可能不知道自己生病了，而且每次與人交談時都可能不經(jīng)意地傳播病毒，比如與雜貨店店員交談。

"If these asymptomatic people could wear face masks, then it could be helpful to reduce the transmission in the community," says Elaine Shuo Feng, an infectious disease epidemiology researcher at the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford.

牛津大學牛津疫苗組傳染病流行病學研究員伊萊恩·朔風說：“如果這些無癥狀的人可以戴口罩，那么就有助于減少在社區(qū)的傳播。”。

Given the reality of asymptomatic spread, masks may be a good socially responsible insurance policy, Gottlieb argues. "[Wearing masks] protects other people from getting sick from you," he says.

戈特利布認為，鑒于無癥狀傳播的現(xiàn)實，口罩可能是一種良好的社會責任保險政策。“(戴口罩)可以保護其他人不受你的感染，”他說。

But there is still a big concern about mask shortages in the United States. A survey released Friday from the U.S. Conference of Mayors finds that about 92% of 213 cities did not have an adequate supply of face masks for first responders and medical personnel.

但在美國，口罩短缺仍然是一個大問題。美國市長會議上周五公布的一項調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，在213個城市中，約有92%的城市沒有為急救人員和醫(yī)務人員提供足夠的口罩。

At this point, experts emphasize that the general public needs to leave the supply of N95 medical masks to health care workers who are at risk every day when they go to work.

在這一點上，專家強調(diào)，公眾需要把N95醫(yī)用口罩的供應留給每天上班時都有危險的醫(yī)護人員。