COVID-19 IN CHINA 中国的疫情

2023年末，时光如梭，我们仿佛穿越回了那个曾经的生活，街道上熙熙攘攘，人们忙碌而充实。然而，社会主义的火焰在街头仍然燃烧，红旗在微风中飘扬，似乎一切都在兴兴向荣的轨迹上。

At the end of the year 2023, time flies, and it is as if we have travelled back to a time when life used to be like that, when the streets were bustling and people were busy and full of life. However, the flame of socialism still burns in the streets, the red flag flutters in the breeze, and everything seems to be on a trajectory of prosperity.

在这个看似恢复常态的社会，仿佛有一种不可名状的沉寂，一种默默埋葬往事的力量。回首这近一年，人们似乎忘记了那场曾经肆虐的非典疫情，或者，更确切地说，是有意选择不去想起。在这充满欢声笑语的表面下，似乎隐藏着一层不可言说的秘密。

In a society that seems to have returned to normalcy, there seems to be an uncanny silence, a power to bury the past in silence. Looking back over the past year, it seems that people have forgotten the SARS epidemic that once raged, or, more accurately, have consciously chosen not to remember it. Beneath the surface of this laughter, there seems to be a layer of unspeakable secrets.

曾经，人们被迫戴上口罩，排队做着核酸检测。城市变得冷清而拥挤。医护人员如同白衣战士，奋战在保卫生命的最前线。而今，这些场景似乎已经成为了遥远的记忆，被时光抹平，被当局的手段淡化。他们的嘴脸在历史的书页中悄然消失，仿佛这一切从未发生过。

At one time, people were forced to wear masks and queue for this nucleic acid test. The city became cold and crowded. Health care workers, like white-clad warriors, fought on the front line in defence of life. Nowadays, these scenes seem to have become distant memories, wiped out by time and diluted by the authorities' tactics. Their faces have quietly disappeared from the pages of history, as if it had never happened.

在我内心的深处，曾有过无数次的挣扎。我决定写下这些文字，并非出于任何别的目的，只是觉得，我们绝不能让记忆沉寂，不应该让遗忘成为一种奢侈。于是，我开始思考，是人们真的忘记了，还是出于某种不可言说的原因，选择了沉默。

In the depths of my heart, there have been countless struggles. I decided to write these words, not for any other purpose than to think that we must not let memories fall silent, that we should not allow forgetting to become a luxury. So I began to wonder whether people really forget, or whether, for some unspeakable reason, they choose to remain silent.

这种似是而非的遗忘，却又让我更加坚定地觉得，我们不能让这段历史在沉寂中湮灭。正如鲁迅所说："一个国家不能没有记忆，没有道德，没有良心，不能总是在无意识中胡来，而且每天胡来，每时每刻胡来。"

This specious forgetfulness, however, makes me feel even more firmly that we cannot let this history be annihilated in silence. As Lu Xun said, "A nation cannot be without memory, without morality, without conscience, without always fooling around unconsciously, and fooling around every day, every moment."

我保证我所写都是真实的。我会尽可能将一些现在还能找到的历史证据附上。当然，当中会有部分内容的来源已经无法追溯。但我以我的人格担保。我所写的所有内容，都全面真实。我可能会在其中加入我的一些我个人在疫情之中的经历。我会公正描述全部个人经历，不会带入任何个人情绪。我只是单纯的以一个在中国生活的普通人的角度描述我所看到的。我不想以一个上帝的视角来描述这个事情。

I promise that what I have written is true. I will include as much historical evidence as I can still find. Of course, there will be parts of it whose origins can no longer be traced. But I give you my word of honour. Everything I have written is fully true. I may include some of my personal experiences in the midst of the epidemic. I will be fair in describing all my personal experiences and will not bring in any personal emotions. I am simply describing what I have seen from the perspective of an ordinary person living in China. I don't want to describe this from a God's point of view.

我只是希望靠我个人的微薄之力延续这个记忆。让历史的记忆得以延续，即便有人想要将它埋葬在时光的深渊中。这是一种对真实的执着，是对历史的坚守，希望人们能够看到过去的真相，不被蒙蔽。

I just want to keep this memory alive in my own small way. To keep the memory of history alive, even if some people want to bury it in the abyss of time. It's an obsession with truth, an insistence on history, and a hope that people will see the truth of the past and not be blinded.

这一切需要从2019年讲起。我依稀记得，在12月中的一天。我在手机上看到一则信息。我记得是微博。大概意思就是在武汉市发现了疑似不明原因的非典型肺炎。我记得这是一个个人号发布的，非官方的信息。我还将这则信息分享给了我一个从医的朋友。他跟我说目前无需担心，因为造成非典型肺炎的原因可能有很多。不一定都是由冠状病毒所引起的。而且还要考虑是否存在人传人等很多因素。就算如果真是SARS卷土重来或者类似的新病毒，疾控中心肯定会第一时间重视的，毕竟这也不是开玩笑的。目前也没有看到任何官方消息。他建议等等看官方发布。

t all needs to start with 2019. I vaguely remember a day in mid-December. I saw a message on my phone. I remember it was a tweet. It probably meant that a suspected unexplained atypical pneumonia had been found in the city of Wuhan. I remember it was posted by a personal number, an unofficial message. I also shared this information with a friend of mine who is a doctor. He told me that there was no need to worry at the moment because there could be many causes of SARS. It may not always be caused by the coronavirus. And there are many other factors to consider, such as whether there is human-to-human transmission. Even if it is true that SARS is making a comeback or a similar new virus, the CDC will surely take it seriously in the first place, after all, this is no joke. We haven't seen any official news yet either. He suggested waiting to see the official release.

有了他的回答，这件事我也没有放在心上。但是这段时间，我还是能陆续在网上看到类似信息的发布。也陆续开始有新闻报道有病例转至武汉的传染病防治医院，金银滩医院。奇怪的是，这些信息都没有遭到官方的辟谣或者审查。

With his answer, the matter was not on my mind. However, during this period of time, I could still see similar information released on the Internet one after another. There were also news reports of cases being transferred to the Wuhan Infectious Disease Control Hospital and the Jinyintan Hospital. Strangely enough, none of this information was officially debunked or censored.

直到12月30日。我才看到了两则疑似出自官方的信息。是来自于武汉市卫生健康委员会的。题目为《关于报送不明原因肺炎救治情况的紧急通知》，《关于做好不明原因肺炎救治工作的紧急通知》。这是我第一次看到官方层面的证实。（关于做好不明原因肺炎救治工作的紧急通知 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆 (wikisource.org)）同时网络上也出现了更多相关的信息，并且越来越多的信息中开始使用疑似SARS和疑似非典肺炎的词。也可开始呼吁在武汉的群众戴上口罩，避免聚集，及时就医等。而在12月30日的时候，金银滩医院已经接收了至少27名疑似病人。（"重组"金银潭：疫情暴风眼的秘密 | 南方周末 (infzm.com)）。

It wasn't until the 30th of December. I saw two pieces of information that appeared to be official. It was from the Wuhan Municipal Health and Wellness Commission. It was titled "Emergency Notice on Reporting the Treatment of Unexplained Pneumonia" and "Emergency Notice on Doing a Good Job of Treating Unexplained Pneumonia". This is the first time I've seen confirmation at the official level. (Emergency notice on doing a good job of treating unexplained pneumonia - Wikipedia, the free library (wikisource.org)) Meanwhile more relevant information has appeared on the web, and more and more information has begun to use the words suspected SARS and suspected SARS pneumonia. People in Wuhan were urged to wear masks, avoid gatherings and seek medical attention. As of 30 December, at least 27 suspected patients had been admitted to the Jinyintan Hospital. ("Reorganising" Jinyintan: the secret in the eye of the epidemic storm | Southern Weekend (infzm.com)).

就在同一天，我还在网上看到。开始出现一个武汉医学院2004级班级微信群的截图。里面一个叫做"李文亮 武汉 眼科"的用户发布了几条信息。

On the very same day, I also read online. A screenshot of a WeChat group for the class of 2004 at the Wuhan Medical School began to appear. In it, a user called "Li Wenliang Wuhan Ophthalmology" posted several messages.

是的，这正是日后因为被警方训诫，被称作吹哨人的李文亮医生。

Yes, this is the same Dr Li Wenliang who later became known as the Whistle Blower after being admonished by the police.

同一天我那个朋友也给我打来了电话。告诉我别乱走了，多买些口罩和消毒液。戴口罩出门，这段时间没事最好别出去了。所以我开始陆续打电话给我的家人和朋友。提醒他们防护。当然，很多人认为我是危言耸听。我非常理解他们，毕竟这是很正常的。我开始着手从网上和药店购买包括口罩的必需品。我记得那时候3m的淘宝店还有N95口罩购买。所以我都购买了一些，但是也不是很多。大概一共100个口罩。10瓶医用消毒液。至少当时我认为够我和我的家人们使用了。我也开始自己从网上查看有关非典，SARS疫情和如何防护的内容。

That same day my friend called me. Told me to stop walking around and buy more masks and disinfectant. Wear a mask and go out. It's best not to go out for a while if nothing happens. So I started calling my family and friends one after another. Reminding them of protection. Of course, a lot of people thought I was being alarmist. I understood them very well, after all, it's quite normal. I started to set out to buy essentials including masks from online and drugstores. I remembered that at that time, 3m's Taobao shop still had N95 masks for purchase. So I purchased some of both, but not a lot. About 100 masks in total and 10 bottles of disinfectant. At least I thought it was enough for me and my family. I also started to check online about SARS and how to protect myself.

12月31日。早上打开手机，看到了第一批国家卫健委所派出的专家组抵达武汉。（武汉发现不明原因肺炎 国家卫健委专家组已抵达武汉新闻频道中国青年网 (youth.cn)）后来在更多报道出现之后，我才知道在行动的不仅仅有国家卫健委。同日凌晨1点半，李文亮医生也接到电话，要求其去武汉市卫健委。
31st December. I turned on my mobile phone in the morning and saw that the first group of experts sent by the National Health Commission had arrived in Wuhan. (Unexplained Pneumonia Found in Wuhan, NHSC Expert Group Arrives in Wuhan_News Channel_China Youth Net (youth.cn)) Later, after more reports appeared, I realised that the NHSC was not the only one on the move. At 1:30 a.m. on the same day, Dr Li Wenliang also received a call asking him to go to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.

（"12月31日凌晨1点半，李文亮接到电话，要求其去武汉市卫健委。"当时卫健委连夜开会，应该是应对疫情的会议，我们医院院领导、医务室主任都参加了。"会议结束后，院领导询问了李文亮消息来源，于凌晨4点多送他回家。到了白天，李文亮又去了两三次医院监察科，反复被询问消息来源以及是否认识到"造谣的错误"，并要求其写一份"不实消息外传"的反思与自我批评。"段落引自李文亮去世10小时 国家监委决定赴武汉全面调查_手机新浪网 (sina.cn)）

("At 1:30 a.m. on 31 December, Li Wenliang received a call asking him to go to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. "At that time, the Health Commission held a meeting overnight, which was supposed to be a meeting to deal with the outbreak, which was attended by our hospital's hospital leaders and medical office directors." After the meeting, the hospital leadership asked Li Wenliang sources, sent him home at 4:00 am. During the day, Li Wenliang went to the hospital's monitoring department two or three more times, and was repeatedly asked about the source of the news and whether he recognised the "mistake of rumour-mongering", and was asked to write a reflection and self-criticism of "spreading untrue news."" (Paragraph quoted from Li Wenliang died 10 hours after the National Supervisory Commission decided to go to Wuhan to conduct a comprehensive investigation _ mobile phone Sina (sina.cn))

当天的下午，我又看到了一条官方信息《武汉市卫健委关于当前我市肺炎疫情的情况通报》。这是第一条武汉卫健委关于这个情况的第一个公告。公告表示"未发现明显人传人现象，未发现医务人员感染。目前对病原的检测及感染原因的调查正在进行中。"（武汉市卫生健康委员会-文件明细 (wuhan.gov.cn)）。同时网上也出现了很多乐观的声音。我忘记是谁了，有一个微博账号，我记得很清楚。他说的大致意思就是，武汉有最先进的病毒实验室，这种东西对于武汉来说简直就是小问题。但是我不敢肯定他是否是这天发的，但是大概时间差不多。

In the afternoon of the same day, I saw another official message, "Wuhan Municipal Health Commission's briefing on the current pneumonia epidemic in the city". This was the first announcement from the first Wuhan Health Commission about the situation. The announcement said, "No obvious human-to-human transmission has been detected, and no infections among medical staff have been detected. Detection of the pathogen and investigation of the cause of the infection are currently underway." (Wuhan Municipal Commission of Health and Wellness - Document Detail (wuhan.gov.cn)). Meanwhile there are a lot of optimistic voices online. I forget who it was, there was a microblogging account that I remember well. He said something along the lines that Wuhan has state-of-the-art virus labs, and that this kind of stuff is simply a minor problem for Wuhan. But I'm not sure if he posted it on this day, but probably around the same time.

看到这则公告和网上的信息的时候，我一直在给我的家人嘲笑了。他们说，这可能就是流感罢了。我就是阴谋论，危言耸听。他们还让我把订购的口罩和消毒液都退了。但是我总是感觉事情没这么简单。我据理力争。最后我们取消了元旦跨年出去玩的计划。选择待在了家里。

When I saw the announcement and the information on the internet, I kept laughing at my family. They say it's probably just the flu. I'm all about conspiracy theories and alarmism. They even told me to return the masks and sanitiser I ordered. But I always had a feeling it wasn't that simple. I argued reasonably. In the end we cancelled our plans to go out on New Year's Day across the border. Chose to stay at home.

（未完）
（Unfinished)