據約翰·霍普金斯大學冠狀病毒研究中心統計，截至周五，美國確診人數已超過50萬。
隨著確診和死亡人數不斷攀升，越來越多的美國媒體都在反思：美國是如何浪費掉寶貴的抗疫時間、一步步走到眼下這種困難境地的。
4月4日，《華盛頓郵報》推出了一篇深度調查文章，全景式回顧了美國在冠狀病毒危機最初70天的失敗經歷和深層原因。
By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president — and the coronavirus the enemy — the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.當川普宣布自己是戰時總統並稱新冠病毒是美國敵人的時候，美國正面臨這樣的可怕前景：美國死於新冠病毒的人數最終可能超過美國在韓戰、越南戰爭、阿富汗戰爭和伊拉克戰爭中死亡人數的總和。
The country has adopted an array of wartime measures never employed collectively in U.S. history — banning incoming travelers from two continents, bringing commerce to a near-halt, enlisting industry to make emergency medical gear, and confining 230 million Americans to their homes in a desperate bid to survive an attack by an unseen adversary.
美國已經採取了一系列歷史上從未同時頒布的戰時措施——禁止來自兩大洲的外國旅客入境，基本停止貿易活動，招募其他行業製造緊急醫療設備，將2.3億美國人困在自己家中，以期扛住一個看不見的對手的攻擊。
Despite these and other extreme steps, the United States will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up catastrophically overmatched by the novel coronavirus, sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation.儘管採取了這樣那樣的極端措施，美國可能還是會在歷史上留下這樣一筆：一個本該為抗擊流行病做好最充分的準備的國家，最終卻被新冠病毒擊敗，遭遇災難性打擊，死亡人數超過其他任何國家。
It did not have to happen this way. Though not perfectly prepared, the United States had more expertise, resources, plans and epidemiological experience than dozens of countries that ultimately fared far better in fending off the virus.事情本不該如此。儘管沒有做好充分的準備，但與幾十個最終在抵禦病毒方面表現得好得多的國家相比，美國擁有更多的專業知識、資源、計劃和流行病學經驗。
The failure has echoes of the period leading up to 9/11: Warnings were sounded, including at the highest levels of government, but the president was deaf to them until the enemy had already struck.這一失敗讓人想起了「9·11事件」發生前的一切：包括政府最高層在內的各方都發出了警告，但時任美國總統對這些警告充耳不聞，直到敵人發動攻擊。
The CDC learned of a cluster of cases in China on Dec. 31 and began developing reports for HHS on Jan. 1.
美國疾病控制與預防中心於12月31日獲悉中國出現大量新冠病毒病例，並於1月1日開始為美國衛生與公眾服務部編寫報告。The Trump administration received its first formal notification of the outbreak of the coronavirus in China on Jan. 3. Within days, U.S. spy agencies were signaling the seriousness of the threat to Trump by including a warning about the coronavirus — the first of many — in the President’s Daily Brief.
1月3日，川普政府收到關於新冠病毒在中國暴發的第一個正式通知。幾天內，美國情報機構首次在總統每日簡報中就這種冠狀病毒威脅的嚴重性向總統發出警報，之後又發出了多次警報。The CDC had issued its first public alert about the coronavirus Jan. 8, and by the 17th was monitoring major airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, where large numbers of passengers arrived each day from China.美國疾病控制與預防中心1月8日首次發布有關新冠病毒的公開警報，並於17日開始監測洛杉磯、舊金山和紐約的主要機場，這些機場每天都要接待大量來自中國的旅客。In other ways, though, the situation was already spinning out of control, with multiplying cases in Seattle, intransigence by the Chinese, mounting questions from the public, and nothing in place to stop infected travelers from arriving from abroad.然而，在其他方面，情況已經失控，西雅圖的病例成倍增加，公眾提出的問題越來越多，沒有任何措施阻止來自境外的受感染旅客。Despite the flurry of activity at lower levels of his administration, Trump was not substantially briefed by health officials about the coronavirus until Jan.18, when, while spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, he took a call from Azar.儘管川普政府較低級別的官員已經開始一系列準備工作，但直到1月18日才有衛生官員向總統詳細匯報有關新冠病毒暴發的情況，當時川普正在海湖莊園度周末，衛生部長阿扎爾向他做了電話匯報。At the time, Trump was in the throes of an impeachment battle over his alleged attempt to coerce political favors from the leader of Ukraine. Acquittal seemed certain by the GOP-controlled Senate, but Trump was preoccupied with the trial, calling lawmakers late at night to rant, and making lists of perceived enemies he would seek to punish when the case against him concluded.當時，川普深陷彈劾戰泥潭，他被指試圖從烏克蘭領導人那裡獲得政治好處。共和黨掌控的參議院似乎肯定會判他無罪，但川普當時滿腦子都是這場官司，深夜還打電話給幾位議員吵吵嚷嚷，並且列了幾份黑名單準備秋後算帳。Azar told several associates that the president believed he was 「alarmist」 and Azar struggled to get Trump’s attention to focus on the issue, even asking one confidant for advice.阿扎爾告訴幾名助手，總統認為他「危言聳聽」，阿扎爾則努力讓川普關注病毒暴發的問題，甚至為此向一名密友徵求意見。On Jan. 21, a Seattle man who had recently traveled to Wuhan tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the first known infection on U.S. soil. 1月21日，一名最近去過武漢的西雅圖男子新冠病毒檢測呈陽性，成為美國本土第一例已知感染病例。On Jan. 22, Trump received his first question about the coronavirus in an interview on CNBC while in Davos. Asked whether he was worried about a potential pandemic, Trump said, 「No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. 」In late January and early February, leaders at HHS sent two letters to the White House Office of Management and Budget asking to use its transfer authority to shift $136 million of department funds into pools that could be tapped for combating the coronavirus. Azar and his aides also began raising the need for a multibillion-dollar supplemental budget request to send to Congress.
1月底和2月初，衛生與公眾服務部的負責人向白宮管理和預算辦公室發出了兩封信函，要求利用其權力將該部1.36億美元的資金轉移到可用於抗擊新冠病毒的資金池中。阿扎爾和他的助手們也開始向國會提出一項數十億美元的追加預算申請。Yet White House budget hawks argued that appropriating too much money at once when there were only a few U.S. cases would be viewed as alarmist.
然而，白宮預算鷹派人士認為，在美國只有少數幾個感染病例的情況下一次性撥款太多，會被視為危言聳聽。
On March 6, Trump toured the facilities at the CDC wearing a red 「Keep America Great」 hat. He boasted that the CDC tests were nearly perfect and that 「anybody who wants a test will get a test,」 a promise that nearly a month later remains unmet.3月6日，川普戴著一頂寫有「讓美國保持偉大」【註：川普的競選口號】的紅色帽子視察了美國疾病預防控制中心，查看了那裡的設施。他吹噓說疾控中心的測試近乎完美，「任何想要測試的人都會得到測試」，可這一承諾在近一個月後仍未兌現。The common flu kills tens of thousands each year and 「nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on,」 he tweeted March 9. A day later, he pledged that the virus would 「go away. Just stay calm.」3月9日，川普在推特上寫道，普通流感每年導致數萬人死亡，「沒有什麼會關停，生活在繼續，經濟在發展」。一天後，他承諾病毒將會「消失，大家只需要保持冷靜」。Two days later, Trump finally ordered the halt to incoming travel from Europe that his deputy national security adviser had been advocating for weeks. But Trump botched the Oval Office announcement so badly that White House officials spent days trying to correct erroneous statements that triggered a stampede by U.S. citizens overseas to get home.兩天後，川普終於下令禁止來自歐洲的入境旅行，他的國家安全顧問數周前就已提議他這麼做。但是川普又把總統聲明搞砸了，以致白宮官員花了幾天時間努力糾正總統的錯誤表述，那些錯誤言論導致海外的美國公民大量返美。In late March, the administration ordered 10,000 ventilators — far short of what public health officials and governors said was needed. And many will not arrive until the summer or fall, when models expect the pandemic to be receding.3月底，政府訂購了1萬臺呼吸機——這遠遠滿足不了公共衛生官員和州長們所說的需求。其中很大一部分要到夏季或秋季才能交貨，根據流行病學預測模型，那時新冠病毒大流行可能將消退。「It’s absolutely critical for the American people to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days,」 he said at his March 31 news conference. 「It’s a matter of life and death.」3月31日，他終於在新聞發布會上說：「未來30天，美國人民一定要遵守這些指導方針，這是極其重要的。這是生死攸關的事情。」The coronavirus may be the first crisis Trump has faced in office where the facts — the thousands of mounting deaths and infections — are so devastatingly evident that they defy these tactics.新冠疫情可能是川普在任職期間面臨的第一場真正的危機。這場危機中，顯而易見的事實是，死亡人數和感染人數早已成千上萬，並且還在上升——事實如此殘酷，以至於種種措施似都失效了。
After months of dismissing the severity of the coronavirus, resisting calls for austere measures to contain it, and recasting himself as a wartime president, Trump seemed finally to succumb to the coronavirus reality. In a meeting with a Republican ally in the Oval Office last month, the president said his campaign no longer mattered because his reelection would hinge on his coronavirus response.過去數月，川普一直淡化新冠病毒的嚴重性，抵制要求採取嚴厲措施加以遏制的呼籲，並給自己加冕為戰時總統，現在他似乎終於屈服於新冠病毒肆虐的現實。總統上個月在橢圓形辦公室與共和黨夥伴會面時說，他的競選不再重要，因為他的連任將取決於他如何應對這場新冠危機。「點擊圖片 查看文章」
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