英国卫报:一万亿美元能治愈所有疾病吗?(2)（在线收听）

Let's take just one example: healthcare. You could eradicate malaria – hell, you could attempt to cure all diseases.

我们来举个例子：医疗保健。你可以根除疟疾—该死的，你可以尝试治愈所有疾病。

Let's say our aim is to protect humanity from the next pandemic, create a new field of human biology, transform the human experience by curing, preventing or treating all known diseases.

假设我们的目标是保护人类不受下一次流行病的影响，创造人类生物学的新领域，通过治愈、预防或治疗所有已知疾病来改变人类的经历。

If it sounds like I'm getting carried away, all these ideas are projects that scientists are thinking about and even working on, but are hampered by lack of resources.

听起来我似乎有些忘乎所以了，这些想法都是科学家们正在思考甚至正在从事的项目，但却因为缺乏资源而受阻。

The full impact of Covid-19 is still playing out. At the time of writing, more than 2 million people have died, while hundreds of millions have had their lives disrupted or economically ruined.

新冠肺炎疫情的全面冲击仍在显现。截至本文撰写时，已有200多万人死亡，数亿人的生活被毁，经济也受到破坏。

The economic impact is at $2tn and rising. But the tragedy could have been even worse.

其经济影响达到2万亿美元，而且还在不断上升。

Unchecked, coronavirus could have caused 40 million deaths in 2020, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO).

但悲剧本可以更糟。根据世界卫生组织(WHO)的一份报告，新冠病毒如果不加以控制，2020年本会导致4000万人死亡。

The virus itself could have been more virulent, and more deadly, and the miserable fact is that just because we've had this coronavirus doesn't mean we can't get another, even worse, pandemic.

这种病毒本身的毒性可能会更强，也更致命。一个悲哀的事实是，虽然新冠病毒爆发了，但这并不意味着以后不会再爆发其它哪怕更糟糕的流行病。

Covid-19 has changed the world, and its tragedy will be felt for years, but we need to use it to raise awareness of the threat of pandemic diseases.

新冠已经改变了世界，这一灾难将持续多年，而我们需要利用它来提高人们对流行病威胁的认识。

It gives us an inkling of the threat to the world from the climate crisis.

因为它，我们对气候危机给世界带来的威胁有了了解。

Our response to this pandemic shows we can adapt and change our lifestyles, and it shows that, when needed, governments can find money to spend – and particularly on public health projects.

我们对这一流行病的应对表明人类能够适应和改变自己的生活方式。同时表明政府在需要时能够找到资金用于支出，特别是在公共卫生项目上的支出。

We knew the risk posed by pandemics. The UK maintains a risk register, a catalogue and assessment of the emergencies that could befall the country, and top of the list, at the start of 2020, was an influenza pandemic.

我们知道流行病的危险。英国有一本风险登记册，对可能发生在该国的紧急情况进行了分类和评估，2020年初排名第一的是一场流感大流行。

Large-scale exercises in 2007 (code-named Winter Willow) and 2016 (Cygnus) showed what might happen to the health service, the economy and the population if a 1918-style disease took hold.

2007年和2016年的大规模演习(代号分别为“冬柳”和“天鹅座”)表明了如果有一场像1918年那样的疾病爆发时医疗服务、经济和人口将会出现的境况。

We knew what was at stake, and now we have firsthand experience.

我们知道什么正处于危险当中，我们现在有一手经验。

In 2018, one disease infected 228 million people and killed about 405,000, mostly children under five, and mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

2018年，有一种疾病感染了2.28亿人，导致约40.5万人死亡，其中大部分是5岁以下的儿童，且主要在撒哈拉以南非洲地区。

That disease, malaria, has been with us for ever. The disease has killed perhaps half of all humans who have ever lived. Malaria is the world's greatest scourge, but it is preventable and curable.

疾病疟疾永远伴随着我们，它已经夺去了大约一半人类的生命。疟疾是世界上最大的祸害，但它是可以预防和治愈的。

In fact, we've done well: deaths from malaria have been halved in the past 20 years.

其实，我们已经做得很好了：疟疾致死人数在过去20年里减少了一半。

But still it clings on and, if we're looking for projects to stretch us and create a genuine legacy, the defeat of humanity's most deadly enemy has a certain ring to it.

不过它仍然存在。如果我们在寻找能最大限度发挥自己的能力并能创造真正遗产的项目，那么打败人类最致命的敌人是一件很有意义的事情。