Over the past week, people across the United States have been protesting the death of George Floyd.
过去一周,全美各地民众一直在抗议乔治·弗洛伊德之死。
The 46-year-old black man died while being held by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Videos of Floyd's death show a white police officer keeping a knee pressed on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying, "I can't breathe."
The protests — and police actions to control them — are threatening to undo American health officials' efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.
抗议活动以及警方为控制抗议所采取的行动可能会令美国卫生官员遏制新冠肺炎蔓延的努力付之东流。
Health experts need newly infected people to remember everyone they werein contact within the days leading up to their confirmed sickness. This helps to let others know they may have been exposed — and prevent those people from spreading the disease even more.
The process is known as contact tracing. It depends on people being able to know who they came close to. That is no easy task if someone has attended a protest with hundreds or even thousands of other people.
The process also depends on something that may be in especially short supply right now: Trust in government.
这个过程还取决于目前可能极为短缺的东西:对政府的信任。
"These events that are happening now are further threats to the trust we need," said Dr. Sandro Galea. He leads Boston University's School of Public Health.
Government officials hope to continue reopening businesses, religious centers and other organizations after months of stay-at-home orders and other infection-prevention measures. But health experts also hoped that reopening would include widespread testing, contact tracing and isolation to prevent new waves of illness from beginning.
It is unclear if the protests will lead to new outbreaks. The protests have taken place outside, where the virus does not spread as easily. Also, many of the protesters have been seen wearing face masks.
But experts still worry that public efforts to contain the disease in the future could be harmed.
但专家仍然担心,未来控制这种疾病的公共努力可能会受到损害。
In Los Angeles, the city's mayor announced Saturday that COVID-19 testing centers were being closed because of safety concerns related to violent protests. And some medical centers in Minneapolis that provide testing have been damaged in the protests, a government spokesperson said.
Reduced testing could "be giving the virus another head start," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
田纳西州范德堡大学的传染病专家威廉·夏弗纳博士表示,减少检测可能“令病毒再次占得先机”。
Concern over contact tracing
关注接触者追踪
Contact tracing, which is only just getting started in several states, is an even bigger concern. It involves people who work for or with health departments asking questions about where a person has been and who they have been talking to — and getting full, truthful answersinreturn.
Schaffner said the current situation in the U.S. could make people less likely to speak with anyone working for the government.
夏弗纳表示,美国当前的局势使人们不太可能与任何政府工作人员交谈。
That is especially true in black communities dealing with police violence and long-held frustrations with how they are mistreated by people who work for government agencies. Those are also the communities that have been hit hardest by the coronavirus and are mostin need ofpublic health measures to help control the spread.
In a press conference last week, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington used the term "contact tracing" when describing an investigation into protesters who had been arrested in the state. He said the goal was to "see if there are any crime or white supremacy organizations" that caused violence and destruction and "to understand how...we go after them, legally."
Harrington's use of "contact tracing" by law enforcement may make the job of health workers more difficult, some experts said.
一些专家表示,哈灵顿在执法行为中使用“接触者追踪”可能会令卫生工作者的工作更加艰难。
"That was an abuse of the word ‘contact tracing.' That is not what contact tracing is," said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Contact tracing is a service to patients and their contacts to provide services for patients and warning for contacts, Frieden said. "It has nothing to do with police activity. Nothing."
Boston University's Galea said he hopes many people willseparatein their minds the contact tracing done by public health workersfromcrime investigations by the police. But, he added, "I do think sometimes it's difficult to make a distinction when you feel...targeted by the entire government."