健康专家重新审视在公共场合是否应戴口罩的问题

健康专家重新审视在公共场合是否应戴口罩的问题

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.

几个月前，在去杂货店的路上戴口罩可能看起来很傻。事实上，美国疾病控制与预防中心传达的主要公共卫生信息是，大多数人不需要戴口罩。

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.

但随着冠状病毒病例的激增，人们开始对口罩在减缓病毒传播方面的作用产生了新的看法。美国疾病控制与预防中心说，它正在审查自己的政策，并可能考虑建议鼓励更广泛的使用(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，疾控中心的网站说，唯一需要戴口罩的人是那些生病的人，或者是那些正在照顾生病而无法戴口罩的人。

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.

但是在周一接受美国国家公共电台采访时，疾病预防控制中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德表示，该机构正在重新审视公众使用口罩的数据。

"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.

雷德菲尔德对美国国家公共电台说:“我可以告诉你，就在我们说话的时候，有关数据和疫苗是否有助于预防的问题正在受到积极的审查。”

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，白宫冠状病毒应对协调员黛博拉·比尔克斯博士表示，工作组仍在讨论是否改变口罩的建议。

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.

最近几天，其他著名的公共卫生专家一直在提出这个问题。美国食品药品监督管理局前局长斯科特·戈特利布在接受美国国家公共电台采访时表示，戴口罩“为那些不得不出门的人提供了一层额外的保护”。

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

这是除了洗手和避免聚会你可以采取的一个步骤。

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启国家路线图的文件中指出，为了共同利益，应该鼓励公众在当前社会疏远时期戴上口罩。

"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.

戈特利布写道:“如果广泛使用口罩，它将是减缓SARS-CoV-2传播的最有效方法，因为它们可能有助于防止无症状感染的人在不知情的情况下传播疾病。”戈特利布指出，韩国和香港这两个地方被证明成功地控制了疫情，口罩在这两个地方被广泛使用。

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

事实证明，许多感染这种病毒的人没有症状，或者只有轻微的症状。

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.

这意味着没有好的方法知道谁被感染了。如果你想在公共场合负责任，你甚至可能不知道自己生病了，而且每次与人交谈时都可能不经意地传播病毒，比如与杂货店店员交谈。

"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.

牛津大学牛津疫苗组传染病流行病学研究员伊莱恩·朔风说：“如果这些无症状的人可以戴口罩，那么就有助于减少在社区的传播。”。

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.

戈特利布认为，鉴于无症状传播的现实，口罩可能是一种良好的社会责任保险政策。“(戴口罩)可以保护其他人不受你的感染，”他说。

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.

但在美国，口罩短缺仍然是一个大问题。美国市长会议上周五公布的一项调查发现，在213个城市中，约有92%的城市没有为急救人员和医务人员提供足够的口罩。

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.

在这一点上，专家强调，公众需要把N95医用口罩的供应留给每天上班时都有危险的医护人员。