Earlier this month, I pulled a mask out of the bin of hats, scarves, and gloves I keep by the door; strapped it on; and choked. I had inhaled a mouthful of cat hair—several weeks’ worth, left by my gray tabby, Calvin, who has been napping on a nest of face coverings since I largely dispensed with them in May.

本月早些时候，我从门口放有帽子、围巾和手套的储物箱拿出一个口罩戴上，被呛着了。我吸了一嘴猫毛——这是我的灰色虎斑猫卡尔文(Calvin)积攒了几个星期的毛发。5月份开始我基本上不用这些东西了，卡尔文就一直窝在上面打盹。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


I’ve been fully vaccinated for two months. I spent the end of spring weaning myself off of masking indoors, and exchanging, for the first time, visible smiles with neighbors in the lobby of our apartment building. I dined, for the first time in a year and a half, at a restaurant. I attended my first party at another (vaccinated) person’s home since the spring of 2020. I am, after all, now at very low risk of getting seriously sick should SARS-CoV-2 infect me, thanks to Pfizer’s vaccine.

我打完疫苗已经两个月了。春末的时候，我戒掉了在室内戴口罩的习惯，在公寓楼大堂里，我第一次和邻居们不戴口罩的交流，第一次看见邻居们脸上的笑容。一年半以来，我第一次在餐馆吃饭。我在另一个(接种疫苗的)人家里参加了自2020年春天以来的第一次聚会。毕竟，多亏辉瑞公司的疫苗，就算感染了新冠，我出现危重症状的风险也非常低。

But the pandemic is once again entering a new phase that feels more dangerous and more in flux, even for the people lucky enough to have received their lifesaving shots. A more transmissible variant—one that can discombobulate vaccine-trained antibodies—has flooded the world. It’s wreaking havoc among the uninoculated, a group that still includes almost half of Americans and most of the global population. After a prolonged lull, the pandemic’s outlook is grimmer than it’s been in months. I am, for the foreseeable future, back to wearing masks in indoor public places, and there are four big reasons why.

但疫情正再次进入一个新阶段，似乎更危险、更不稳定，即使对那些幸运地已经接种疫苗的人来说也是如此。一种更容易传播的变异病毒——它能扰乱已经被疫苗激发出来的抗体——已经席卷全球。它在未接种人群——近一半的美国人和全球大部分人——之间造成很大破坏。在长时间的平静之后，疫情的前景比过去的几个月更加严峻。在可预见的未来，我将重新在室内公共场所戴起口罩，原因有四。

1. I don’t want to get COVID-19.
Let me be clear: My chances of getting sick are low, very low, especially if I’m thinking about the disease in its worst forms. The vaccines are spectacularly effective at blocking COVID-19, particularly cases that lead to hospitalization or death, even when squaring off with Delta and other antibody-dodging variants. I expect this to hold true for some time: These vaccines were tested primarily for their power to curb deadly illness, and that’s what they’re accomplishing against every version of the coronavirus they face.

1、让我明确一点：在我能想到的最坏的情况下，我感染的几率也很低，非常低。这些疫苗在阻断新冠病毒方面非常有效，特别是在因感染而住院或死亡的病例中，即使是在与德尔塔和其他能躲避抗体的病毒变种对抗时也是如此。我预计这种情况会持续一段时间：这些疫苗主要是为了抑制一些致命疾病而进行测试的，现在在面对每一种冠状病毒时，它们也确实做到了。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


But no vaccine is perfect. Some immunized people will end up infected with the virus; a small subset of this group will fall ill, occasionally severely so. The proportion of vaccinated people who catch the coronavirus might tick up in the presence of certain mutations that make the virus less recognizable to vaccinated immune systems, and thus harder to purge. The longer the virus sticks around in the body—the more opportunity it’s given to copy itself and mosey through our tissues—the more likely it is that symptoms will arise as immune defenders rally to fight. (Delta might be extra well equipped to accumulate in airways.) Most post-vaccination infections, or breakthroughs, appear to be asymptomatic or mild, a sign that the vaccines are doing their job. But mild illness still isn’t desirable illness, especially given the threat of long COVID, which reportedly can happen in vaccinated people, though researchers aren’t yet sure how widely.

但没有一种疫苗是完美的。一些接种了疫苗的人最终会感染病毒：这一群体中有一小部分人会生病，有时病情还很严重。在某些突变的存在下，接种疫苗的人感染冠状病毒的比例可能会上升，这些突变使接种疫苗的免疫系统更难识别病毒，从而更难清除。病毒在体内停留的时间越长，它就有越多的机会自我复制并穿梭于我们的组织中——当抗体集结起来与之对抗时，症状就越有可能出现。（德尔塔可能特别容易积聚在气道中。）大多数情况下，疫苗接种后引起的反应似乎是无症状或轻微的，这表明疫苗正在发挥作用。但轻微的疾病仍然不是理想的疾病，尤其是考虑到长期感染新冠的威胁，据报道，这种情况可能发生在接种过疫苗的人身上，但研究人员尚不确定范围有多大。

Masks slash the risks of all these outcomes. Breakthroughs are more common when the immune system faces a ton of inbound virus—when there’s an ongoing outbreak, or when the people around me aren’t immune. A mask reduces my exposure every time I wear one. Some variants, including Delta, might be more transmissible, but they’re still thwarted by physical barriers such as cloth.

口罩降低了所有这些后果的风险。当免疫系统面临大量外来病毒时——当病毒持续爆发时，或者当我周围的人没有免疫力时，感染就更常见了。每次戴上口罩，都会减少暴露在空气中的机会。一些变体，包括德尔塔，可能更容易传播，但它们仍然受到诸如布料之类的物理障碍的阻碍。

I’m not duping myself into thinking that I’ll stave off this virus forever; SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay. But as hospitals in several states once again start to fill up, I’m in no rush to rendezvous with the coronavirus, especially because …

我不是在自我欺骗，以为我能永远避开这个病毒;新冠将继续存在。但随着几个州的医院再次人满为患，我不急于与冠状病毒直接接触，尤其是因为……

2. I don’t want people around me to get COVID-19.

我不希望身边的人感染新冠

If I get infected, that affects more than just me. I worry about the strangers I encounter—many of them maskless—whose immune status I don’t know. I worry about the youngest kids in my social network, who aren’t yet eligible for shots, and the elderly and immunocompromised, whose defenses may be weaker than mine. I worry about the people in my community who have been structurally barred from accessing the vaccines, or who are reluctant to take the shots. My risk of getting COVID-19 is low. Theirs is very much not.

如果我被感染，影响的不仅仅是我自己。我担心我遇到的陌生人——他们中的许多人没有戴口罩——他们的免疫状况我不知道。我担心我的社交网络中年龄最小的孩子，他们还没有资格注射疫苗，还有老年人和免疫功能低下的人，他们的防御能力可能比我弱。我担心我的社区里那些被禁止接种疫苗或不愿接种疫苗的人。我感染新冠的风险很低，但他们则远非如此。

The COVID-19 vaccines come with the delightful perk of blocking some asymptomatic infection, but researchers are still figuring out how often vaccinated people can pass on the pathogen. The math gets all the messier with more contagious variants such as Delta. Inbound virus affects me directly, but it can also turn me into a pathogen pit stop, potentially allowing outbound virus to bop into someone with less immunological armor. “Masks protect both us and the people around us,” Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious-disease physician at the Medical University of South Carolina, told me. In the United States, inoculation rates have taken a serious dip. The proportion of vulnerable people is stagnant, yet still too high.

新冠疫苗有一个令人欣喜的好处，就是可以阻止一些无症状感染，但研究人员仍在研究接种疫苗的人传播病原体的概率。随着德尔塔等具有传染性的变体的出现，数学计算变得更加复杂。入侵的病毒会直接影响我，但它也会把我变成一个病原体驿站，可能会让入侵的病毒侵入免疫力较差的人体内。南卡罗莱纳医科大学(Medical University of South Carolina)传染病内科医生库帕利(Krutika Kuppalli)告诉我：“口罩既能保护我们，也能保护我们周围的人，”。在美国，疫苗接种率大幅下降。尽管弱势群体的比例没有增加，但仍然过高。

During a pandemic, personal safety can’t be the only consideration, as my colleague Ed Yong has written. The disease we’re dealing with is infectious; the repercussions of our behavior ripple to those around us. Many unvaccinated people belong to populations that have been marginalized by the country’s fractured health-care system. Saddling them with any increased COVID-19 risk, even indirectly, threatens to widen disparities. Going maskless indoors still feels like a gamble, especially because …

正如我的同事Ed Yong所写，在大流行期间，个人安全不是唯一的考虑因素。我们正在处理的疾病是具有传染性的;我们的行为会对周围的人产生影响。许多未接种疫苗的人属于被该国支离破碎的医疗体系边缘化的人群。即使是间接地增加他们的感染风险，也可能会扩大差距。在室内不戴口罩仍然感觉像一场赌博，尤其是因为……

3. I trust the vaccines, but I understand their limits.

我相信疫苗，但我也清楚它的局限性
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


My pivot back to masks says nothing about my continued confidence in the vaccines and what they’re capable of. But although vaccines are an excellent tool, they are also an imperfect one, and they’ll perform differently depending on the context in which they’re used.

我重新戴上口罩，并不影响我对疫苗和疫苗的效果充满信心。不过，尽管疫苗是一种极好的工具，但也不是完美的工具，它们的作用会根据使用的环境而不同。

Consider, for example, the effectiveness of sunscreen, another stellar yet flawed preventive. Certain brands, including those with higher SPF, will be better than others at blocking burns and cancer. Mileage may vary even with the same tube of sunscreen, depending on who’s using it (how much melanin is in their skin?), how they’re behaving (are they dipping in and out of the shade, or spending all day soaking up rays?), and local conditions (is it a cloudy day in a wooded park, or a sunny day on a snow-speckled hill?). Vaccines are similar. Breakthroughs are more likely in people with a weakened immune system and those who mingle frequently with the virus; they may happen more often with certain variants.

例如，想想防晒霜的有效性，这是另一种重要但有缺陷的预防措施。某些牌子，包括SPF值（日光防护系数）更高的牌子，在防止烧伤和癌症方面比其他牌子更有效。即使使用相同的防晒霜,防晒效果也可能不一样，因为这取决于谁在使用它(皮肤里黑色素含量多少?)、他们是如何活动的(他们是时不时的走进阴凉地,还是一整天都在吸收射线?)以及当地环境(它是树木繁茂的公园里的阴天，还是白雪皑皑的山上的晴天?)。疫苗的效果也类似。免疫系统较弱和经常与病毒接触的人更有可能取得感染；某些病毒变体感染几率也更大。

Asking a vaccine to shoulder the entire burden of protection felt all right a month ago, when case rates were plunging. Now they’re ticking back up. The vaccines don’t feel different, but the conditions they’re working in do. Maybe now’s not the best time to rely on them alone. “That’s putting a lot of pressure on the vaccines,” Jason Kindrachuk, a virologist at the University of Manitoba, told me. The virus has upped the ante, and I feel the urge to match it. When it’s extra sunny out, I’m probably going to reach for sunscreen and a hat, especially because …

一个月前，当病例率急剧下降时，让疫苗来承担保护的全部责任，感觉还不错。但现在他们又卷土重来了。疫苗并没有什么不同，但它们所处的环境却发生变化了。也许现在不是单独依靠疫苗的最佳时机。曼尼托巴大学(University of Manitoba)病毒学家贾森·金德拉查克(Jason Kindrachuk)告诉我：“这给疫苗带来了很大的压力，”。病毒一方加大了赌注，我也想跟它一样。当外面格外晴朗的时候，我可能会去拿防晒霜和帽子，尤其是因为……

4. Wearing an accessory on my head doesn’t feel like a huge cost to me.

购买口罩的花销对我来说压力不大

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t enjoy wearing a mask, and all else equal, I’d still prefer to keep it off. But for me, it’s not a big sacrifice to make for a bit more security: I’ll mainly be using one indoors when I’m around strangers, a situation in which the risk of spread is high. And I’ll keep checking pandemic conditions like I would a weather forecast—hospitalizations, variants, immunization rates, and the behaviors of people around me—and adjust as needed. The idea is that this state of affairs will be short-lived, until vaccinations climb and the virus retreats again.

不要误解我。我不喜欢戴口罩，在其他条件相同的情况下，我还是选择不戴。但对我来说，为了多一点安全，这并不是一个大的牺牲：我主要会在室内使用，当我周围有陌生人的时候，传播的风险很高。我将继续像预测天气一样跟踪流行病的情况——住院人数、变异、免疫接种率和我周围的人的行为——并根据需要进行调整。我的想法是，这种情况只是权宜之计，直到疫苗接种率上升和病毒再次撤退时就会停止。

I live in New England, where things are relatively calm. I could probably get away with resuming normal life, whatever that is. But the status quo feels tenuous. It will take work to maintain. As Delta dominates the nation and case rates rise, we may already be losing our grip. Kuppalli said that although she’s concerned about our current menagerie of variants, she’s also trying to ensure that more problematic versions of the virus don’t have the opportunity to arise. The stakes in her community are particularly high: In South Carolina, where vaccination rates are relatively low, “it’s a free-for-all,” she said. “When I walk into a supermarket, I’m the only one in a mask. People look at you like you’re crazy.”

我住在新英格兰，那里比较平静。我也许能逃脱恢复正常生活的惩罚，不管那是什么。但这种现状似乎很脆弱。它需要努力维护。随着德尔塔病毒在国内流行，感染率上升，现状可能已经失控。库帕利说，尽管她对我们目前的变种感到担忧，但她也在努力确保威胁更大的病毒变体没有机会出现。她所在社区的风险尤其高：在接种率相对较低的南卡罗来纳州，“这是一场混战” ，她说，“当我走进一家超市，我是唯一一个戴口罩的人。人们会像看疯子一样看着你”
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Vaccines have sometimes been billed as an option to supplant the nuisance of masks. But making that trade-off at an individual level feels overly simplistic in a population where so many people are neither immune nor covered up. I got vaccinated because I wanted to reduce my chances of getting sick with this virus and transmitting it to others. Masking is a complementary means to the same end. My return to it isn’t an indictment of vaccination. It’s an insurance policy. It’s a small price to pay for more protection, especially once I’ve washed the cat hair away.

疫苗有时被宣传为替代令人讨厌的口罩的一种选择。但在一个如此多的人既没有免疫也没有戴口罩的群体中，在个人层面做出这种权衡似乎过于简单。我接种疫苗是因为我想降低感染这种病毒并将其传染给他人的几率。戴口罩是达到同样目的的一种互补手段。我重新戴起口罩并不是对疫苗接种的控诉。这是一项保险之策。为了得到更多的保护，这个代价很微小，尤其是在我把上面的猫毛洗干净之后。