为检验新冠病毒在聚集性场所的传播途径,德国拟斥巨资打造一场4000人参与的“模拟音乐会”,希望能为文娱场所在回归常态后的防疫工作提供借鉴。
German scientists are planning to equip 4,000 pop music fans with tracking gadgets and bottles of fluorescent disinfectant to get a clearer picture of how Covid-19 could be prevented from spreading at large indoor concerts.
德国科学家计划为4000名流行音乐爱好者配备追踪装置和荧光消毒剂,以便更清楚地了解如何防止新冠病毒在大型室内音乐会中传播。
As cultural mass gatherings across the world remain on hold for the foreseeable future, researchers in eastern Germany are recruiting volunteers for a “coronavirus experiment” with the singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko, to be held at an indoor stadium in the city of Leipzig on 22 August.
在可预见的未来,世界各地仍将暂停举办大型文化集会。德国东部的研究人员正在招募志愿者,与创作型歌手蒂姆·本茨科一起进行“新冠病毒实验”。这场实验将于8月22日在莱比锡市的一个室内体育馆举行。
Participants, aged between 18 and 50, will wear matchstick-sized “contact tracer” devices on chains around their necks that transmit a signal at five-second intervals and collect data on each person’s movements and proximity to other members of the audience.
参与者的年龄在18岁至50岁之间,他们将在脖子上戴上一串火柴棍大小的接触追踪装置,这种装置每隔5秒发送一次信号,并收集个人活动和观众距离的数据。
Inside the venue, they will also be asked to disinfect their hands with a fluorescent hand-sanitiser – designed to not just add a layer of protection but allow scientists to scour the venue with UV lights after the concerts to identify surfaces where a transmission of the virus through smear infection is most likely to take place.
在会场内部,他们还被要求使用荧光消毒液洗手,这种设计不仅增加了一层保护,而且允许科学家在音乐会结束后,使用紫外线灯清理现场,以确定活动现场有哪些区域的表面最容易传播病毒。
Vapours from a fog machine will help visualise the possible spread of coronavirus via aerosols, which the scientists will try to predict via computer-generated models in advance of the event.
雾机产生的蒸汽将有助于使新冠病毒通过气溶胶传播的可能性可视化,科学家们将尝试在音乐会前通过计算机模型对此进行预测。
The €990,000 cost of the Restart-19 project will be shouldered between the federal states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. The project’s organisers say the aim is to “identify a framework” for how larger cultural and sports events could be held “without posing a danger for the population” after 30 September.
这个名为“重启-19”的实验项目耗资99万欧元
While some German states, such as Saxony and Brandenburg, have relaxed social-distancing restrictions to the extent that medium-sized indoor concerts are allowed to go ahead, concerts with more than a thousand attendees remain banned across the country until at least the end of August.
虽然德国的一些州,如萨克森州和勃兰登堡州放宽了社交距离限制,允许举行中型室内音乐会,但至少在8月底之前,全国仍禁止举行1000人以上的音乐会。
New Zealand, which managed to control the spread of the pandemic at an early stage, allowed 20,000 rugby fans to crowd into a stadium in the city of Dunedin this weekend. An estimated 6,200 spectators attended US president Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 20 June.
新西兰成功地在早期阶段控制了疫情的蔓延,这周末允许2万名橄榄球球迷涌入达尼丁市的一个体育场。6月20日,大约有6200名民众在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨市参加了美国总统特朗普举行的竞选集会。
Elsewhere, musicians and sportspersons face a precarious future as the fear of “super-spreader events” makes many governments reluctant to allow large gatherings in enclosed environments.
在其他地方,音乐家和运动员面临着不确定的未来。出于对“超级扩散性活动”的恐惧,许多政府不允许在封闭场所举行大型集会。
precarious[prɪˈkeəriəs]:adj.危险的;不确定的
“We are trying to find out if there could be a middle way between the old and the new normal that would allow organisers to fit enough people into a concert venue to not make a loss,” said Stefan Moritz, the head of clinical infectious diseases at the University hospital in Halle and the experiment’s coordinator.
该实验协调员、哈雷大学医院临床传染病负责人斯蒂芬·莫里茨说:“我们正试图找出是否有新旧状态之间的中间方案,允许组织者让足够多的人参加音乐会,以避免亏损。”
To stop the Leipzig experiment from becoming the source of a new outbreak, signed-up volunteers will be sent a DIY test kit and have a swab at a doctor’s practice or laboratory 48 hours before the concert starts. Those who cannot show proof of a negative test at the door will be denied entry.
为了防止莱比锡的实验成为新的疫情暴发源,报名参加的志愿者将收到新冠病毒自我检测包,并在音乐会开始前48小时在医生诊所或实验室接受拭子检测。入场时无法出示阴性检测结果的人将被拒绝进入。
A face mask with an exhalation valve will be given to each concertgoer with the disinfectant. While organisers say these measures mean the risk of catching the virus at the concert is “extremely slim”, they also warn that 100% protection cannot be guaranteed.
每位音乐会观众都会收到一个带呼气阀的口罩和消毒剂。虽然组织者说这些措施意味着在音乐会中感染病毒的风险“非常小”,但他们也警告说不能完全保证不被感染。
By midday on Monday, 775 volunteers had signed up for the concert with Bendzko, a soul-pop singer whose 2011 debut album sold 500,000 copies in Germany.
截至周一 At the Leipzig concert hall, a seating-only venue that has held sports events as well as concerts by Bob Dylan and Britney Spears, they will be asked to act out three different scenarios.
在莱比锡音乐厅,观众将被要求参加三种不同的场景实验。莱比锡音乐厅是一个只有座位区的场所,曾举办过体育赛事,也举办过鲍勃•迪伦和布兰妮•斯皮尔斯的演唱会。
In the first scenarios, the audience will attend the concerts as they would have done in pre-virus times, entering through two main entrances before taking their seats. In the second, “optimised” scenario, the crowd will enter through eight entrances to facilitate less mingling, and every second seat on the stands will be blocked.
在第一种场景中,观众将像在新冠疫情之前那样,先从两个主要入口进入会场,然后就座参加音乐会。在第二种“优化”场景中,观众将从8个入口进入,以减少拥挤,并隔位就坐。
In the third, strictly socially distanced scenario, only 2,000 spectators will be allowed to enter the 12,000 capacity venue and be seated at a 1.5m distance from each other.
在第三种严格实行社交距离的场景中,只有2000名观众可以进入可容纳12000人的音乐厅,并且彼此之间的座位距离为1.5米。
The scientists behind the concert say they hope to search through the mass of data in just over a month and present their findings in early October.
举办音乐会的科学家们表示,他们希望在一个多月的时间里搜索大量数据,并在10月初公布研究结果。