[English Note] 英国卫报：感染60%民众的“群体免疫”，真的有效吗？|外刊精读

引用

Ministers look to have given up on containment in favour of a novel approach some experts are wary of.

Herd immunity is a phrase normally used when large numbers of children have been vaccinated against a disease like measles, reducing the chances that others will get it. As a tactic in fighting a pandemic for which there is no vaccine, it is novel – and some say alarming.

• give up on sth/sb 表示“对…绝望；对…不抱希望”(to stop hoping that someone or something will change or improve)。比如“老师不对我抱任何希望了”，我们可以说My teachers gave up on me.
• in favour of sth 表示“赞同，支持”(if you are in favour of sb / sth, you support and agree with them / it)。比如◇Senior ministers spoke in favour of the proposal.高级部长们都表示支持这项提议。近义词还有：advocate, approve, support, champion。电影《爆炸新闻》里便出现了champion作动词的用法：

• normally表示“通常，一般来说”，说明一般的情况，后面往往会转折，说明特殊的情况，给出反例，本文也是如此。“从一般到特殊”是英文语篇中常用的逻辑结构，在以后的阅读和写作过程中要多留意。在《经济学人》一篇关于垃圾分类的文章也学到过，原句：What kind of rubbish are you?” This question might normally provoke anger, but in Shanghai it has elicited weary groans over the past week.“你是什么垃圾?”通常，这个问题会让人怒火中烧。然而在上海，这句话在 过去一周中引发的却是一片不耐烦的抱怨声。[写作推荐]
• vaccinate [ˈvæksɪneɪt] 为动词，表示“给…接种疫苗”，惯用搭配是vaccinate sb against sth。比如◇All children should be vaccinated against measles.所有儿童都应该接种麻疹疫苗。
• chance 表示“可能性”(a possibility of sth happening, especially sth that you want)。再扩展一些关于chance的高频表达：
• 1.(The) chances are (that)… 表示“可能…”，相当于it is likely that...。比如◇The chances are you won't have to pay. 你可能不用付钱。

• 2.on the off chance that… 表示“心存侥幸地，怀着渺茫希望地”，有点类似于汉语中“万一”。

• 3.take a chance 表示“冒险，碰运气”(to decide to do sth, knowing that it might be the wrong choice)。比如◇He took his chances and jumped into the water.他冒险跳进水里。

• measles 为不可数名词，指“麻疹”。
• ②As a tactic in fighting a pandemic for which there is no vaccine, it is novel – and some say alarming.
• 句子的主干部分为It is novel，为主系表结构。as a tactic in fighting a pandemic for which there is no vaccine是介词短语作状语，表示“作为….”，其中包含一个介词+关系代词引导的定语从句：As a tactic in fighting a pandemic (for which there is no vaccine)，for which 引导的定语从句修饰pandemic，还原为正常语序是There is no vaccine for a pandemic。介词+关系代词引导的定语从句是一个难点也是一个高频的语法现象。
• tactic [ˈtæktɪk] 指“手法，策略”(a method that you use to achieve something)，是外刊中的高频词，比如《经济学人》一篇关于屏幕时间的文章有这样一句话：On the school run, parents compare tactics for limiting screen time. 家长们也会在接送孩子上下学时交流限制孩子“屏幕时间”的办法。

• 由 tact 衍生出来的还有形容词 tactful 指“机智的；有分寸的;圆通的”(not likely to upset or embarrass other people)，tactless 指“冒失的；无分寸的”(likely to upset or embarrass someone without intending to)
• pandemic由pan（表示“广泛的”）和dem（人民）+ic构成，表示“大流行病，瘟疫”(a disease that affects people over a very large area or the whole world)。
• novel作名词指“小说”，作形容词表示“新颖的，与众不同的”(different from anything known before; new, interesting and often seeming slightly strange)。新型冠状病毒未被正式命名为COVID-19前，便被称作 the novel coronavirus。
• novelty 作名词指“新奇，新颖；新奇的事物”，也可作形容词表示“新奇的，风格独特的” (different and unusual; intended to be amusing and to catch people's attention)。

• alarming 义为“使人惊恐的，引起恐慌的”(causing worry and fear)，比如◇The rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate. 雨林正以惊人的速度消失。近义的词 有 frightening, fearsome, dreadful, terrifying 等。
• alarmist [əˈlɑː.mɪst] 指“危言耸听的，骇人的”(causing unnecessary fear and anxiety)，是一个贬义词。 在《经济学人》一篇关于澳大利亚大火的文章学过这个单词，原句：If that sounds alarmist, remember that in 2018 California had the deadliest forest fires in its history, killing over 80 people and causing parts of Los Angeles to be evacuated, while over 100 people died in wildfires in Greece. 如果这听起来像危言耸听的话，那么请记住，2018年加利福尼亚州发生了有史以来最大的森林大火，造成80多人死亡，导致洛杉矶部分地区的人口全部撤离，而在希腊则有100多人死于森林火灾。

引用

It relies on people getting the disease – in this case Covid-19 – and becoming immune as a result. Generally it is thought that those who recover will be immune, at least for now, so they won’t get it twice.

• immune [ɪˈmjuːn] 指“有免疫力的”(that cannot catch or be affected by a particular disease or illness)。惯用搭配是be immune to sth。
• immune 还可引申为“不受到…的影响”(not affected by sth)。比如“他对所有的劝说都无动于衷”，我们可以说He was immune to all persuasion.
• as a result 表示“因此，结果”，这个短语大家都很熟悉，但大部分同学都只会把它用于句首，写作As a result, … 但其实它也可以用于句中和句末，大家可以在自己的作文里也灵活变换它的位置。[写作推荐]
• for now和for the moment, for the time being一样，表示“目前，眼下，暂时”，是外刊高频词。

引用

①But allowing the population to build up immunity in this way – rather than through widespread testing, tracking down the contacts of every case and isolating them, as many other countries in Asia and Europe have chosen to do – could increase the risk to the most vulnerable: older people with underlying health problems.

• build up 表示“增高，加强”(to make sth higher or stronger than it was before)。
• contact这里作名词，指“接触的人”。
• track down表示“搜寻到，追查到”(to find sb / sth after searching in several different places)。
• isolate 为动词表示“隔离”。比如《经济学人》一篇关于新型冠状肺炎的文章里有这样一句话：They can be reduced by effective public health measures, such as isolating sick people and tracking individuals they’ve had contact with.通过有效的公共卫生措施，如隔离病人、跟踪他们曾经接触过的人，可以减少疾病的发生。
• 同样表示隔离的还有quarantine，quarantine sb/sth就表示“对...进行隔离”，前段时间在看的美剧《血疫》也出现了这个单词。

• quarantine也可作不可数名词，keep sb/sth in quarantine , put sb/sth in quarantine，也可表示“隔离...”。比如《纽约时报》一篇关于新冠肺炎的文章提到：In Italy, local authorities quarantined industrial communities south of Milan as the coronavirus spread there late last month, threatening to amplify troubles for the global supply chain. 在意大利，随着新冠病毒上月底在米兰南部传播，当地政府对那里的工业区进行了隔离，这可能会加剧全球供应链的麻烦。
• underlying [ˌʌndəˈlaɪɪŋ] 为形容词，表示“根本的，潜在的，隐含的”(important in a situation but not always easily noticed or stated clearly)。比如《纽约时报》一篇关于新冠肺炎的文章学过这样一句话：Many of those who died were older men with underlying health problems. 许多死亡病例都是有基础疾病的老年人。

引用

To reach herd immunity, about 60% of the population would need to get ill and become immune, according to Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser. Though it could need as much as 70% or more. Even scientists who understand the strategy are anxious. “I do worry that making plans that assume such a large proportion of the population will become infected (and hopefully recovered and immune) may not be the very best that we can do,” said Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

• get ill指“生病”。顺便复习一下我们在考研英语一2013 Text 3里学到的ill作名词的用法，表示“问题，弊端”，原句是Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives of fulfillment and opportunity for all. 科学和技术能解决人类所有的困难，使所有人都能过上充实且充满机遇的生活。
• ill还可作副词，扩展一个地道短语speak/think ill of sb 表示“说...的坏话，把...网往坏处想”( to say or think bad things about sb)

• as much as+数字是一个外刊高频词汇，表示“高达，多至”，用于强调数量大得惊人。我们在经济学人精读社还学过一系列近义表达，老学员们可以复习一下，这些词汇都是外刊描述数据时使用的高频词。[写作推荐]
• do+动词原形表示强调。比如◇I do love you.我的确爱你。这是口语特别常用的表达，大家以后需要强调动词时也可以用上。

• assume指“假定，认为”(to think or accept that sth is true but without having proof of it)，名词形式为assumption。在考研英语一2013 Text2里In the past couple of weeks a quarrel has illustrated the value to advertisers of such fine-grained information: Should advertisers assume that people are happy to be tracked and sent behavioural ads? 在过去几周，大家的一席争论已经展示了这种精细信息对于广告商的价值：广告商是否可以认为用户乐意被追踪，且愿意接受行为广告？
• emerging 为形容词，指“新兴的，发展初期的”(in an early state of development)。
• emergent 也可表示“新兴的，处于发展初期的”，往往形容国家、政治运动胡红社会团体，比如◇emergent nations / states新兴民族/国家
• infectious[ɪnˈfekʃəs]指“传染性的，感染的”(an infectious illness can be passed from one person to another, especially through the air you breathe)，尤指通过空气。 动词形式为infect。
• hygiene [ˈhaɪdʒiːn] 为不可数名词，指“卫生，保健”(the practice of keeping yourself and the things around you clean in order to prevent diseases)。形容词为hygienic。

• 近义词还有sanitary [ˈsæn.ɪ.tri] 为形容词，表示“有关卫生的，与健康有关的”，与hygienic类似，sanitary还可表示“卫生的，干净的”，反义词为insanitary或unsanitary。比如电影《绿皮书》里的钢琴家曾嫌弃肯德基不卫生，用的是便是unsanitary这个词。

• tropical [ˈtrɒpɪkəl] 指“热带的，来自热带的”，the tropics指“热带地区”。

引用

The government’s “nudge unit” seems to favour this strategy. Dr David Halpern, a psychologist who heads the Behavioural Insights Team, said on BBC News: “There’s going to be a point, assuming the epidemic flows and grows, as we think it probably will do, where you’ll want to cocoon, you’ll want to protect those at-risk groups so that they basically don’t catch the disease and by the time they come out of their cocooning, herd immunity’s been achieved in the rest of the population.”

• nudge 本义是“轻推”的意思。这里的nudge是诺贝尔经济学奖得主理查德·塞勒和卡斯·桑斯坦共同提出的概念，中文译为“助推”，旨在不需要强制性手段的情况下，巧妙地引导人们做出更理性的思考与选择。这是一个很有趣的概念，感兴趣的同学可以看一看下面这本书。nudge unit指“行为洞察力小组”，其目的是利用行为科学来解决现实世界的问题，帮助普通个体、公司、医院、政府高层及相关组织做出更明智的决策。
• favour 作动词，指“较喜欢，选择”(to prefer one system, plan, way of doing sth, etc. to another)。
• head 作动词，指“领导，主管”(to lead or be in charge of sth)。比如◇She has been appointed to head the research team. 她受命领导研究小组。近义表达还有lead, be in charge of sth, be in command of sth等等。
• cocoon [kəˈkuːn] 作名词是“茧”的意思，作动词表示“把…包围起来保护，用…完全保护起来”(to protect sb / sth by surrounding them or it completely with sth)。比如◇We were warm and safe, cocooned in our sleeping bags. 我们在睡袋里睡觉，暖和又安全。
• at-risk指“处于危险中的，可能遭受伤害的”(in danger of being attacked or hurt, especially in their own home)。比如◇Social services keep lists of at-risk children.社工组织保留有在家里可能遭受伤害的孩子名单。
• catch 作动词，表示“染病，得病”(to get an illness)。我们还可以用短语come down with sth来表示“得病”。比如◇Thomas came down with chickenpox at the weekend.托马斯周末染上了水痘。

引用

“Another strategy might be to try to contain [it] longer and perhaps long enough for a therapy to emerge that might allow some kind of treatment. This seems to be the strategy of countries such as Singapore. While this containment approach is clearly difficult (and may be impossible for many countries), it does seem a worthy goal; and those countries that can should aim to do.”

引用

But Anthony Costello, a paediatrician and former World Health Organization director, said that the UK government was out of kilter with other countries in looking to herd immunity as the answer. It could conflict with WHO policy, he said in a series of Twitter posts, which is to contain the virus by tracking and tracing all cases.He quoted Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, who said: “The idea that countries should shift from containment to mitigation is wrong and dangerous.”

• paediatrician [ˌpiː.diəˈtrɪʃən] 指“儿科医生，儿科学家”。
• be out of kilter with sth [ˈkɪltər] 表示“与…不一致，与…不同，不匹配”(not agreeing with or the same as sth else)。比如◇His views are out of kilter with world opinion. 他的观点与世人的看法不一致。
• answer 可表示“解决方案”，是一个用来提出解决措施的高频词。惯用搭配为the answer to sth。比如◇The police do not have an answer to rising crime.警方没有办法解决犯罪率上升的问题。[写作推荐]

• trace 指“追踪，查出，找到”(to find or discover sb / sth by looking carefully for them / it)，与track down为同义替换。
• mitigation [ˌmɪtɪˈgeɪʃən] 为不可数名词，指“减轻，缓解”(a reduction in how unpleasant, serious, etc. sth is)。
• 动词形式为mitigate 义为“缓和;减轻”(to make a situation or the effects of something less unpleasant, harmful, or serious)，比如缩小地区差异:mitigate the regional disparities 减缓全球变暖：mitigate global warming。近义的词有 alleviate, ease, relieve 等。

引用

Herd immunity might not even last, Costello said. “Does coronavirus cause strong herd immunity or is it like flu where new strains emerge each year needing repeat vaccines? We have much to learn about Co-V immune responses.” Vaccines, he said, were a much safer way of bringing it about.

• strain [streɪn] 作名词，指疾病或动植物的“类型，品种”(a type of animal, plant, or disease)。比如◇This is only one of the many strains of the disease. 这种病有许多类型，这只是其中之一。美剧《血疫》里出现了这个单词：

• strain 作名词更常见的意思是“压力，重负”(If strain is put on an organization or system, it has to do more than it is able to do)，惯用搭配为put strain on sb, under strain。比如《经济学人》一篇关于亚洲四小龙的文章有这样一句话：Singapore’s carefully managed political system has come under more strain, and a backlash against immigration shows that it is not immune to the populism that has reared its head throughout the world. 新加坡精心管理的政治体制承受的压力增大，而民众强烈的反移民情绪表明新加坡也不能幸免于在世界各地抬头的民粹主义的冲击。

• strain也可作动词表示“过度使用，使…不堪承受”(to try to make sth do more than it is able to do)，我们在考研英语2013 Text 1也学过，复习一下原句：For H&M to offer a $5.95 knit miniskirt in all its 2,300-plus stores around the world, it must rely on low-wage overseas labor, order in volumes that strain natural resources, and use massive amounts of harmful chemicals. 以H&M为例，他们在全球有2300多家分店，若想同时推出一款售价为5.95美元的针织迷你裙，只能依赖低工资的海外劳动力与消耗自然资源的批量订单，并大量使用有害化学物质。[熟词僻义]