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| In early February, my sister posted a video in our family’s WhatsApp group. | 2月初，我的妹妹在我们的WhatsApp家庭群组里发了一段视频。 |
| It was a seven-minute CNN report on Malawi, a country in East Africa that is one of the world’s poorest. Coronavirus vaccines were nowhere to be found in Malawi, the report said, because richer countries were hogging the supplies. The video focused on Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi’s second-largest city, showing the strain the facility was under as it battled the virus. The hospital’s workers were tending to infected patients but had little prospect of getting vaccinated soon. | 那是CNN关于马拉维的一段七分钟报道，马拉维位于东非，是世界上最贫困的国家之一。报道称，由于供应资源被富裕国家独占，新冠病毒疫苗在马拉维无处可寻。那段视频聚焦在马拉维第二大城市布兰太尔的伊丽莎白女王中心医院(Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital)，讲述了该医院面临的抗疫压力。医院的工作人员在照料感染患者，但短时间内打上疫苗的希望不大。 |
| My sister Pui-Ying, a pediatrician, was one of those unprotected workers. | 我妹妹佩瀛是儿科医生，也是那里未受到保护的工作者之一。 |
| “Sorry to see this,” I texted back, lamely. | “看到这种情况我很难过，”我讪讪回复道。 |
| Unwritten was a question: Would Pui-Ying, a frontline doctor who would have been vaccinated against Covid-19 months ago if she worked in the United States, be the last of my family to be inoculated? | 未能宣之于笔的，是这样一个问题：若是在美国工作，佩瀛作为前线医生早在几个月前就应该打上新冠疫苗了，但她会不会是我们家最后一个打疫苗的人？ |
| For more than a year, the pandemic has divided families around the world, with relatives unable to travel to see one another without fearing for their health, waiting out quarantines and navigating red tape. But even as vaccines become available, the hopes for reunions have been tempered by the higgledy-piggledy nature of the rollouts. | 一年多以来，疫情拆散了世界各地的家庭，若不经历对健康的担忧、对隔离的等待、以及对繁琐程序的忍耐，亲属之间根本无法出行探望彼此。但即便疫苗已经上市，由于推出过程的混乱，亲人重聚的盼头也被泼了冷水。 |
| Many families are at the mercy of a global game of vaccine geopolitics, as wealthier countries struggle to balance immunizing their own citizens against providing supplies to others. Some nations have no doses. Where there are supplies, there are also vaccine misinformation, technological hurdles and personal doubts about the efficacy and safety of vaccines. | 许多家庭只能听任全球疫苗地缘政治游戏的支配，因为富裕国家难以在为本国公民免疫和向他国提供疫苗之间取得平衡。一些国家没有疫苗供应。在有疫苗的地方，也存在疫苗虚假信息、技术障碍以及个人对疫苗有效性和安全性的怀疑。 |
| My family, spread across three continents, has been a microcosm of these forces. Our parents live in Hong Kong; Pui-Ying in Blantyre; and another sister, Pui Ling, and I in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are separated by many time zones and thousands of miles. | 我的家人遍布三个大洲，他们也成为了这些作用力影响的缩影。我们的父母生活在香港；佩瀛在布兰太尔；另一个妹妹佩凌和我在旧金山湾区。我们相隔许多个时区，数千英里的距离。 |
| My parents have worried about the safety of the vaccines, their anxiety fueled by a combination of media reports and their political views and health histories. Pui Ling and I have grumbled about our chaotic local vaccine situations, knowing that we would soon get our chance — even as Pui-Ying, who works in a two-room Covid ward for children, wondered if she would get any shot at all. | 我父母担心疫苗的安全性，媒体报道加上他们的政治观点以及健康史导致他们更加焦虑。佩凌和我对我们本地混乱的疫苗接种颇有怨言，但我们知道很快就能得到机会——而在新冠儿童双人病房工作的佩瀛还不知道自己能否打得上。 |
| Dr. Kate O’Brien, director of immunizations and vaccines at the World Health Organization, said that what my family faced was the result of a “very discoordinated and incoherent set of approaches, where every country was making decisions for their own context.” Many families — including her own — were grappling with the same inequities, she said. | 世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)免疫和疫苗主管凯特·奥布莱恩(Kate O’Brien)博士称，“各个国家依据自身情况做决定的这种非常不协调连贯的办法”导致了我的家庭面临这样的后果。她说，包括她自己的在内，许多家庭都在挣扎着应对这样的不平等。 |
| Once countries procure vaccines, they generally give priority access to the highest-risk groups, including health care workers and seniors. If that were the case with my family, Pui-Ying would be at the front of the line, along with Dad and Mom, who are in their mid-70s. Pui Ling, who works at a foundation, and I, a New York Times editor, would be at the back of the queue. | 一旦国家购买疫苗，通常会给包括医护工作者和老年人在内的高危群体优先接种。如果真是如此，在我家，佩瀛和年过70的父母应该是最先接种的人。在基金会工作的佩凌和担任《纽约时报》编辑的我得排在后面。 |
| That was not how it turned out. | 结果却并非如此。 |
| Hong Kong | 香港 |
| As Britain and the United States began administering vaccines in December, Mom and Dad surprised us. Maybe, they said during a WhatsApp video call, they wouldn’t get vaccinated. What if the shots were unsafe? | 去年12月，当英国和美国开始接种疫苗后，爸妈让我们大吃一惊。在一次WhatsApp视频通话中，他们说可能不会打疫苗。如果疫苗不安全怎么办？ |
| I was shocked. The coronavirus had made it impossible for us to see one another in person. Hong Kong, a densely packed city of 7.5 million, had instituted strict travel and quarantine rules. In the United States, the pandemic was out of control. Vaccines held the key to freeing us from a year of stifling restrictions. | 我感到震惊。新冠病毒让我们无法见面。拥有750万稠密人口的香港推行了严格的旅行和隔离规定。在美国，疫情已经失去控制。疫苗是将我们从这一年令人窒息的限制中解放出来的关键。 |
| And it wasn’t like my parents to fall for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. What was I missing? | 我父母也不像是会相信反疫苗阴谋论的人。是有什么我不知道的事么？ |
| Our parents’ thinking evolved. It helped when an 80-year-old uncle in Tallahassee, Fla., was vaccinated in January. He was the first in our extended family to be inoculated, and the news sparked much excitement on a WhatsApp thread among my aunts, uncles and parents. | 然后我们父母的想法变了。一位住在佛罗里达州塔拉哈西市的80岁叔叔在1月打了疫苗，增长了他们的信任。这位叔叔是我们大家庭中第一个接种的人，这个消息在WhatsApp激起了姨母、叔伯和父母的极大兴奋。 |
| “It would be safer to get it” than not to, Dad concluded. | 我爸总结道，比起不打疫苗，“打上肯定更安全”。 |
| Then came another curveball. Mom and Dad announced that they were willing to get only vaccines made in China. At least four Chinese biopharmaceutical companies, such as Sinovac and Sinopharm, had developed Covid vaccines, joining a field that also included Britain and Sweden’s AstraZeneca, Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute and America’s Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer, the last of which had teamed up with the German company BioNTech. | 此后又出现了迂回。爸妈宣称他们只愿意打中国生产的疫苗。包括科兴(Sinovac)和国药(Sinopharm)在内，至少有四家中国生物制药公司研发了新冠疫苗，同时进行研发的还有英国和瑞典的阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)、俄罗斯的加马列亚研究所(Gamaleya Research Institute)和美国的强生(Johnson & Johnson)、莫德纳(Moderna)及辉瑞(Pfizer)，辉瑞与德国企业BioNTech进行了合作。 |
| The wrinkle was that Sinovac’s two-shot vaccine had an efficacy rate of about 50 percent, according to clinical trials. That was substantially lower than the European and American vaccines, in particular the shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Those prevented about 90 percent of infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. | 问题在于，根据临床试验数据，科兴两针疫苗的有效性约为50%。这远低于欧美疫苗——特别是辉瑞-BioNTech和摩德纳疫苗的有效性。根据疾病控制与预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)的数据，后两者能够预防大约90%的感染。 |
| Yet Dad was firm. Years of a deteriorating relationship between China and the United States, including a trade war, had made him skeptical of American superpower. A proponent of a strong, united China, he was proud of the country’s rise in recent decades. “I’m patriotic,” he said about the vaccine choice. | 但我爸爸很坚决。算上贸易战，中美关系多年来的恶化让他对美国这个超级大国产生了怀疑。作为拥护一个强大统一的中国的人，他为中国近几十年来的崛起感到自豪。“我很爱国，”他在谈到疫苗的选择时说。 |
| China and other countries have nurtured such vaccine patriotism. Last month, Beijing promised expedited visa processing to foreigners inoculated with Chinese-made vaccines. Britain has also wrapped the Union Jack around the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed with researchers at Oxford University, said Claire Wardle, the U.S. director of First Draft, a nonprofit focused on global misinformation. | 中国和世界各国都在培养这种疫苗爱国主义。上个月，北京承诺对接种中国疫苗的外国人加快签证办理流程。关注全球虚假信息的非营利组织First Draft的美国负责人克莱尔·沃德尔(Claire Wardle)表示，英国也在与牛津大学(Oxford University)研究人员共同研发的阿斯利康疫苗上贴了英国国旗图案。 |
| My sisters and I were simply relieved that Dad and Mom would take a vaccine. Get whatever you can, we told them, because any vaccine was better than none. | 我和妹妹们都为爸爸妈妈会去打疫苗松了口气。我们对他们说，打哪个都行，打疫苗总比不打好。 |
| Ultimately, the matter of which one they could get was dictated not by nationalism but by supply. In late February, Hong Kong got its first vaccine shipments: one million doses of Sinovac. (Hong Kong would later receive 585,000 doses of the BioNTech vaccine via a Chinese company, Fosun.) | 最终，他们打哪个疫苗的问题不由民族主义决定，而由供给决定。今年2月底，香港获得了首批100万剂科兴疫苗。（后来通过一家中国公司复星，香港得到了58.5万剂BioNTech疫苗。） |
| On Feb. 22, Mom texted that she and Dad had booked a March 11 appointment to get their first shots, followed by second doses in April. A day later, she reported that Dad hadn’t pressed the button to confirm the appointment on the online booking system and had lost the slots. | 2月22日，妈妈发短信说，她和爸爸预约了3月11日的第一针，4月再打第二针。一天后，她发短信说，爸爸用网上系统预约时没按确认按钮，没有预约成。 |
| The next week, they texted again: They had walked to a private clinic that was dispensing Sinovac shots. After a short wait, they received the vaccine. On April 2, they told us that they had gotten their second dose of Sinovac and were feeling fine. Mom groused that even though they had an appointment, they “still need to wait for half an hour.” | 他们一周后又发了一条短信：他们去了一家正在为人接种科兴疫苗的私人诊所。在那里等了一小会儿之后，他们打了疫苗。4月2日，他们通知我们，已经打了第二针科兴疫苗，没有不良感觉。妈妈抱怨说，尽管他们第二次有预约，但“还是要等半个小时”。 |
| Blantyre, Malawi | 马拉维，布兰太尔 |
| Pui-Ying had moved with her family to Malawi in 2016 to work as a doctor and conduct clinical research on children’s health. Resources at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, where she works, were limited. When Madonna’s charity helped finance the construction of a new children’s wing at the hospital, which opened in 2017, it was big news. | 佩瀛在2016年和家人一起移居马拉维，从事医生工作和儿童健康的临床研究。她工作的伊丽莎白女王中心医院资源有限。麦当娜的慈善机构为医院为新建的儿科部提供了资金，新儿科部2017年投入使用时曾是条大新闻。 |
| Staffing was tight even before the coronavirus, Pui-Ying said. When the pandemic came, the hospital decided on a one-week-on, one-week-off routine to reduce staff exposure to Covid-19 while ensuring that enough medical professionals would be working at all times. Masks, gloves and other protective equipment were scarce. | 佩瀛说，早在新冠病毒出现之前，医院的人手已经很紧张。新冠病毒大流行到来后，医院决定实行一周上班、一周休息的制度，以减少工作人员接触新冠病毒的机会，同时确保所有时候都有足够的医务人员上班。口罩、手套和其他防护设备都很稀缺。 |
| In pediatrics, Pui-Ying and her colleagues set up a “respiratory zone” for children with Covid-19. It was essentially a two-room ward, with about a dozen beds in the main room. The second room, which was an isolation unit, had space for four children. | 佩瀛和她的儿科同事为感染新冠病毒的儿童设立了一个“呼吸病房”。实际上只有两个病房，大病房里有十几张床。小病房是隔离区，可以容纳四名患儿。 |
| For a while, Malawi kept the coronavirus under control. But in December, the country was crushed by a second wave of Covid-19, which may have been supercharged by a South African variant. | 马拉维的疫情曾在一段时间里得到了控制。但去年12月，该国受到第二波新冠病毒疫情的重创，其中可能有南非变异病毒的原因。 |
| Positivity rates for Covid-19 soared at one point to 40 percent, said Dr. Queen Dube, who was head of pediatrics at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and recently was appointed chief of health services at Malawi’s Ministry of Health. (By comparison, the peak positivity rate in the United States was around 22 percent last April, according to Johns Hopkins University.) | 伊丽莎白女王中心医院儿科主任、最近被任命为马拉维卫生部卫生服务主任的奎恩·杜倍(Queen Dube)博士说，新冠病毒检测阳性率一度曾高达40%。（相比之下，据约翰·霍普金斯大学[Johns Hopkins University]的数据，美国的病毒检测阳性率去年4月最高时大约是22%。） |
| In early March, after an application from Malawi’s government, the vaccine-sharing initiative Covax sent 360,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. When the shipment arrived at the airport in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, health workers there were photographed flashing celebratory V-signs. | 今年3月初，马拉维政府提出申请后，提出疫苗共享倡议的组织Covax给该国送去了36万剂阿斯利康的新冠疫苗。这批疫苗抵达马拉维首都利隆圭的机场时，有人拍下了那里的卫生工作者打V字手势庆祝的镜头。 |
| The bad news was that the shipment covered less than 2 percent of the population. | 坏消息是，这批疫苗不足以覆盖该国人口的2%。 |
| Dr. Dube said she hoped for 960,000 more doses soon. The goal was to be able to vaccinate 60 percent of the country by the end of next year. By contrast, the United States is inoculating more than three million people a day, and all adults who want a vaccine will be able to get one by this summer. | 杜倍说，她希望很快还会有96万剂疫苗送到。该国的目标是明年年底前能够为全国人口的60%接种疫苗。相比之下，美国每天正在为300多万人接种疫苗，到今年夏天，所有想接种的成年人都能打上疫苗。 |
| In the meantime, what doses there were had been earmarked for high-risk groups. Pui-Ying, who was eligible, said she was elated. Based on what she had read in the media, she hoped she would get a shot within days. | 与此同时，已经运到的疫苗已指定提供给高危人群。佩瀛符合条件，她说她感到欢欣鼓舞。据她看到的媒体报道，她希望自己能在几天内打上疫苗。 |
| San Francisco | 旧金山 |
| As Pui-Ying waited to hear about a vaccine, the situation in California brightened. | 就在佩瀛等待疫苗消息时，加州的情况大为改善。 |
| As more vaccines became available in California, colleagues and friends urged one another to make appointments or seek leftovers, sending spreadsheets of various inoculation sites. I signed up for a slot. | 随着加州的疫苗供应越来越多，同事和朋友们都在互相督促预约或寻找剩余的疫苗，把接种点的列表发给大家。我在其中一处登了记。 |
| On the evening of March 10, I got one of the last Pfizer-BioNTech shots of the day at a Walgreens. A bored pharmacist injected me with the vaccine in a screened-off area of the dimly lit drugstore. It was strangely anticlimactic. But after a year of lockdowns, it was also a great relief. | 3月10日傍晚，我在一家沃尔格林(Walgreens)药店打上了当天剩下的最后一剂辉瑞-BioNTech疫苗。在灯光昏暗的药店一个用挡板隔开的区域，一名急着打完的药剂师给我注射了疫苗。感觉是奇怪的平淡。但度过了一年的行动限制后，打疫苗也让人感到一种极大的解脱。 |
| I texted the good news to Mom and Dad, using many exclamation marks. They were pleased and immediately quizzed me on whether I felt any side effects. (I didn’t, apart from a slightly sore shoulder.) I called Pui Ling and prodded her to try to get a shot. She said she would wait, knowing her turn would come before long. | 我把这个好消息用短信发给爸妈时用了很多个感叹号。他们都很高兴，立即问我是感觉到什么副作用。（我没感觉，除了打疫苗的胳膊有点痛。）我与佩凌通了电话，催她去打疫苗。她说她知道不久就会轮到她了，还得再等等。 |
| A few days later, Mom forwarded a photo to our family WhatsApp group. It was of Pui-Ying, mask on and with a sleeve of her T-shirt pushed up. She was getting an AstraZeneca shot outside Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. Malawi had started vaccinating people on March 11, when a live broadcast showed top officials being immunized. Pui-Ying got hers five days later. | 几天后，妈妈把一张照片发到了我们家的WhatsApp群里。照片上是佩瀛，她戴着口罩，T恤衫的袖子推了上去。她正在伊丽莎白女王中心医院外打阿斯利康疫苗。马拉维于3月11日开始为民众接种疫苗，并现场直播了高级官员接种的画面。五天后，佩瀛打上了疫苗。 |
| I had gotten the vaccine six days before my sister, the frontline doctor. | 我比从事前线医务工作的妹妹早六天接种了新冠疫苗。 |
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