美新冠死亡病例超20萬大綱

200K Covid-19 deaths in US

美新冠死亡病例超20萬

When Dr Anthony Fauci predicted in March that COVID-19 could kill 200,000 people in the US, skeptics lambasted him and accused him of fear mongering.

當安東尼·福奇博士在3月份預測新冠肺炎可能在美國導致20萬人死亡時，懷疑論者痛斥他，指責他製造恐慌。

But Fauci was right.

然而，福奇是對的。

And the US reached that bleak milestone much earlier than some experts predicted.

而且全美死亡病例突破20萬例的時間要比一些專家預測的時間點早得多。

Since the first known US COVID-19 death on Feb 6, an average of more than 858 people have died from the disease every day.

自2月6日美國出現首例新冠肺炎死亡病例以來，平均每天有超過858人死於這一疾病。

COVID-19 is now the second-leading cause of death in the US, just after heart disease, according to the University of Washington's Institute for HeAlth Metrics and Evaluation.

據華盛頓大學健康指標與評估研究所的數據，在美國，新冠肺炎目前是僅次於心臟病的第二大死亡原因。

Already, COVID-19 has killed more people in the US than Americans killed in battle during the five most recent wars combined. The loss of life is like suffering the effects of 109 Hurricane Katrinas. Or enduring the 9/11 attacks every day for 66 days.

美國因新冠肺炎死亡的人數，已經超過了最近五次戰爭中美國死亡人數的總和，是卡特里娜颶風喪生人數的109倍，是9·11襲擊喪生人數的66倍。

And researchers project almost 180,000 additional COVID-19 deaths by Jan 1.

研究人員預測，到明年1月1日，可能還會有近18萬人因新冠肺炎死亡。

But it doesn't have to be that way.

但這並不是必然的。

"Increasing mask use to 95 percent can save nearly 115,000 lives, reducing that expected number of deaths by 62.7 percent," the institute said.

健康指標與評估研究所表示：“將戴口罩比例提高到95%，可以挽救11.5萬人的生命，使預計死亡人數減少62.7%。”

And the same mask wearing, physical distancing and hand washing that protect against COVID-19 also can help avert a flu-and-coronavirus "twin-demic" that could overwhelm the health care system.

戴口罩、保持社交距離和勤洗手不僅可以預防新冠肺炎，也有助於避免流感和新冠病毒形成“孿生流行病”，“孿生流行病”可能導致醫療體系不堪重負。