國家地理:為了結(jié)束這場流行病 我們必須相信科學(xué)(5)

Science on the frontier always exposes how little is known, even by the putative experts, so these phone calls made it clear to me how far we have to go. Still, it was nice to hear that a lot of scientists were looking for answers.

尖端科學(xué)總會揭露出我們所知甚少，即使是公認的專家也一樣，因此這幾通電話讓我明白我們要走的路還有多長。盡管如此，聽到許多科學(xué)家正在尋求解答仍是一件很棒的事。

"It's been amazing to see how people are using their talents and gifts to address this," Gregg Gonsalves, co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University, told me. "People all want to do something," even if their training is in law, geography, anthropology, fine arts, or similarly far-flung fields.

“看到人們是如何運用才能與天賦面對這件事，真的令人感到驚奇?！币敶髮W(xué)全球衛(wèi)生正義伙伴計劃的共同主持人格雷格·貢薩爾維斯告訴我?！懊總€人都想做點什么，”即使他們學(xué)的是法律、地理、人類學(xué)、美術(shù)或類似的不太相關(guān)的領(lǐng)域。

All that research focus has led to a remarkable amount of information in a remarkably short time. Within weeks of the first known animal-to-human transmission, scientists had sequenced the virus's full genome. By summertime, more than 270 potential COVID-19 drugs were in active clinical trials in the United States. As for the quest for the holy grail, a vaccine, an international phalanx of researchers from the U.S., China, Great Britain, India, Germany, Spain, Canada, Thailand, and elsewhere had identified more than 165 candidates by early August. Progress was so rapid that even a hyper-realist like Fauci -- who tends to emphasize how important it is to conduct large-scale clinical trials before introducing new drugs -- has said he is "cautiously optimistic" that a vaccine could be available early next year. If he's right -- oh please, oh please, let him be right -- that would be three years faster than the fastest vaccine development in history.

所有研究都有共同聚焦，使得在極短時間內(nèi)已有極可觀的信息量。在動物傳人首例通報后的數(shù)周內(nèi)，科學(xué)家就已經(jīng)將病毒的全基因組定序完成。到了夏天，已有超過270種有潛力的COVID-19藥物在美國進行臨床試驗。至于眾人殷切追尋的終極目標：疫苗，由美國、中國、英國、印度、德國、西班牙、加拿大、泰國和其他地方研究者組成的國際團隊，在8月初時已經(jīng)找出超過165支候選疫苗。進展如此迅速，就連福奇這么超級務(wù)實的人（他往往會強調(diào)在新藥上市前先進行大規(guī)模臨床試驗有多么重要）都表示，他對于明年初就有疫苗可用“抱持審慎樂觀的態(tài)度?！比绻菍Φ?-喔，拜托、拜托，希望他是對的--那就會比歷史上最快的疫苗研發(fā)還快了三年。