福奇：沒有科學證據表明新冠病毒來自中國實驗室

近日，美國國家過敏症與傳染病研究所所長安東尼·福奇教授在接受美國《國家地理》雜誌採訪時，再次否認了“新冠病毒是人爲製造”的陰謀論，對近期美國官員堅持的新冠病毒來自於中國武漢實驗室事故理論潑了冷水。

Anthony Fauci has become the scientific face of America’s COVID-19 response, and he says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China.

安東尼·福奇已經成爲美國應對新冠肺炎疫情的科學代表，他說，最有力的證據表明，造成疫情的新冠病毒並不是中國的實驗室人爲製造的。

Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, shot down the discussion that has been raging among politicians and pundits, calling it “a circular argument” in a conversation Monday with National Geographic.

美國國家過敏症及傳染病研究所所長福奇駁斥了政界人士和權威人士的激烈討論，他在週一（5月4日）接受《國家地理》採訪時稱，這是一種“循環爭論”。

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Fauci says. Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn’t entertain an alternate theory—that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped.

福奇說：“通過觀察蝙蝠中病毒的進化過程及病毒現在的情況，（根據這些科學證據）幾乎可以肯定地說，新冠病毒並非起源於人爲製造或蓄意操縱。關於病毒逐步進化的一切證據都強有力地表明，該病毒首先是自然進化，然後越界到人類。”基於這些科學證據，他也不支持另一種理論，即有人在野外發現了新冠病毒，把它帶到實驗室，之後意外泄露。

stepwise[ˈstepwaɪz]：adj.逐步的，逐漸的

Fauci is most concerned that the United States will be put to the test this fall and winter by a second wave of COVID-19 if the country does not blunt the infection rate by the summer.

福奇最擔心的是，如果美國到今年夏天還不能降低感染率的話，將在今年秋天和冬天經受第二波新冠肺炎的考驗。

“Shame on us if we don't have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter,” he says, advising that the US needs to make sure we not only have an adequate supply of tests available before a second wave hits, but also a system for getting those tests to the people who most need them.

他說：“如果我們到那時還沒有進行足夠多的測試，第二波新冠肺炎可能會在秋季和冬季到來，這將令我們蒙羞。”他建議，在第二波疫情到來之前，美國不僅需要確保測試量充足，也需要建立起使最需要檢測的人得到檢測的機制。

“I don't think there's a chance that this virus is just going to disappear,” he says. “It's going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.” As such, Fauci says the US should also focus this summer on properly reinforcing the nation’s health care system, ensuring the availability of hospital beds, ventilators, and personal protective equipment for health care workers.

他說：“我不認爲這種病毒會消失。它就在附近，如果有機會，它就會捲土重來。”因此，福奇說，美國今年夏天還應該把重點放在適當加強國家的醫療保健系統上，確保有足夠的病牀、呼吸機和醫護人員的個人防護用品。

He also stressed the importance of continuing to social distance everywhere until the case counts start to fall in cities and states. The US witnessed about 20,000 to 30,000 new cases every day in the month of April, suggesting the country is stuck in its peak.

他還強調，各地應繼續保持社交距離，直到確診病例在各市各州開始下降。4月份，美國每天新增確診病例約2萬至3萬例，表明其新冠疫情仍處於高峯期。

Still, he remains optimistic that a vaccine will be ready within an historically short time frame, citing one promising candidate that he thinks may move into advanced clinical trials by the early summer. Fauci has said that he thinks a final vaccine could be available for general use as early as January, which would break records for the speed at which previous vaccines were developed.

不過，他仍然樂觀地認爲，疫苗將在有史以來非常短的時間內研發出來。他提到了一種很有希望的備選疫苗，認爲可能在夏初進入臨牀試驗。福奇表示，他認爲最終的疫苗最早可於明年1月大量投入使用，這將打破以往疫苗研發速度的紀錄。

One reason for his confidence is the “impressive” results being seen now in animals tested with a vaccine candidate made by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Therapeutics, which brought it into human trials in a record 42 days. The candidate is what is known as an mRNA vaccine—a drug that uses snippets of a virus’s genetic material—rather than the dead or weakened virus itself—to build the proteins that trigger the body’s protective immune response.

他有信心的一個原因是，馬薩諸塞州劍橋市Moderna Therapeutics公司生產的一種備選疫苗進行的動物試驗結果“引人矚目”，使其創紀錄地在42天內進入人體試驗階段。這種疫苗被稱爲mRNA疫苗，是一種利用病毒遺傳物質的片段而不是死亡或被削弱的病毒本身來製造蛋白質，從而觸發人體保護性免疫反應的疫苗。

snippet[ˈsnɪpɪt]：n.小片；片斷

To date, no type of mRNA vaccine has been licensed for use in humans, but Fauci believes there is great promise for this technology targeting the coronavirus, based in part on his experience developing treatments for HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and ‘90s.

到目前爲止，還沒有任何類型的mRNA疫苗被批准用於人類，但基於他在20世紀80年代和90年代研究艾滋病療法的經驗，福奇相信這項針對新冠病毒的技術前景明朗。

“For some reason that we're still struggling with, the body does not make an adequate immune response to HIV,” he says. To fight off that virus, a vaccine has to work better than the body’s own natural response. By contrast, “it's obvious that many people make a very adequate immune response” to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the animal trials so far show that modest doses of the mRNA vaccine for coronavirus have also generated a strong immune response.

他說：“由於某些一直讓我們不解的原因，人體無法對艾滋病毒做出充分的免疫反應。”爲了對抗這種病毒，疫苗必須比人體自身的自然反應更有效。相比之下，“很明顯，許多人對新冠病毒做出了非常充分的免疫反應”，而迄今爲止的動物試驗表明，適量的新冠病毒mRNA疫苗也產生了強烈的免疫反應。

He adds that NIAID is still developing and supporting multiple vaccine efforts, in case those that go into trials soonest don’t ultimately prove safe and effective. “You want a lot of shots on goal. We want four or five candidates that we put out there all within a reasonable time,” he says.

他補充說，美國國家過敏症及傳染病研究所仍在研發和支持多種疫苗，以防那些最快進入試驗的疫苗最終被證明不安全和無效。“你需要很多嘗試的機會。我們希望在合理的時間內推出4到5種備選疫苗。”

Fauci told National Geographic he’s concerned about states rushing to reopen before their infection rates fall. He also shared how he manages the barrage of new scientific information being released about COVID-19, and how his family and faith keep him going despite his increasingly hectic schedule.

福奇告訴《國家地理》雜誌，他對於美國各州在感染率下降之前急於重新開放表示擔憂。他還分享了自己如何處理關於新冠肺炎的大量新科學信息，以及儘管日程日益繁忙，家庭和信仰如何讓他堅持下去。