请帮我们个忙

霍尔登·索普 Holden Thorp 

《科学Science》  2020年3月13号，367卷, 6483期, 1169页

“帮我个忙，快点！再快点！”，特朗普总统在全美郡县协会立法会议上说。最近在谈到治疗新冠病毒（SARS-CoV-2）疫苗的进展时，他把这句话又重新说给了制药公司的高管们。多年主管美国国家过敏和传染病研究所NIAID的Anthony Fauci一直反复向特朗普强调，研制疫苗至少需要一年半的时间。制药公司的高管们也传达了同样的信息。显然，特朗普认为只要不断重复他的要求就会改变结果。

人们批评中国对科学家在舆情流行期间进行报复性压制。现在，美国政府正在做类似的事（这一句在中国被删除）。Fauci和其他政府科学家被告知，他们向公众发布评论前必须向副总统彭斯报告，这是不可接受的。现在不是通过否认进化论、气候变化和吸烟危害来塑造公众信息的时候。感谢Fauci、Francis Collins（美国国家卫生研究院NIH院长）以及他们在联邦机构的同事，他们知难而上，将信息逐步传播出去。

当科学家们试图分享疫情的事实时，政府要么封锁这些信息、要么自相矛盾地篡改事实。传播率和死亡率不能随意改变和扭曲。美国政府一再表示（就像他们上周所做的那样），病毒在美国的传播得到了控制，但从基因组学证据来看，华盛顿州和其他地方的社区传播是非常明显的。这种对事实的歪曲和否认是危险的，几乎肯定会导致美国联邦政府反应迟缓。过去三年来，人们辩论联邦政府官员的言辞是否重要；现在很明显的是，他们的言辞事关生命和死亡。

尽管可以采取某些步骤来提高疫苗研制的效率，但其中所涉及的许多步骤仍取决于必要的生物和化学过程。所以总统可能会说，“帮我个忙，快点启动曲速引擎。”（但是这样的话不会加速疫苗研制）。

我不指望政治家们知道电磁学的麦克斯韦方程组或双烯合成反应（狄尔斯-阿尔德反应Diels-Alder chemical reaction）（尽管我做梦都想让他们知道）。但是，当你不喜欢科学的时候，你不能一边侮辱它，一边突然要求科学做不能立刻做到的东西。在过去4年里，特朗普总统大幅削减了科学预算，包括削减了美国CDC和NIH的经费。出于政治目的，这届政府无视环境保护署和国家海洋与大气管理局的科学研究，迟迟不任命科技政策办公室主任，近4年来这个国家一直在伤害和忽视科学。

现在，总统先生您突然需要科学了。但是，科学家们花了几个世纪来阐明支配自然世界的基本原理，如进化论、万有引力、量子力学等，是为让我们了解什么能做、什么不能做。科学家们积累和分析证据、运用归纳推理、将研究对象的发现提交给同行审查的方法，多年来已被证明能产生可靠的知识。这些过程正在以前所未有的速度通过国际合作来应对新冠病毒引发的疫情危机。本月早些时候，《科学》杂志发表了两篇关于SARS-CoV-2的新论文，还会有更多的论文发表。但是用来描述自然的概念也同样被用来创造新的工具。因此，要求研制疫苗的同时又歪曲科学是一种自相矛盾。

疫苗必须有基本的科学依据，它必须是可生产，它必须安全的。这可能需要一年半或更长时间。制药公司的高管们有各种各样的动机要尽快生产，毕竟他们会以此获利。但谢天谢地，他们也知道你不能为了达到这一目标而违反自然法则。

也许我们应该高兴。三年前，总统宣布对疫苗持怀疑态度，并试图发起一个反疫苗工作组。而现在他突然喜欢上了疫苗。

但请帮我们个忙，总统先生，如果你想要什么，就请先从尊重科学及其原理开始。

Do us a favor

H. Holden Thorp 

Science  13 Mar 2020: Vol. 367, Issue 6483, pp. 1169

“Do me a favor, speed it up, speed it up.” This is what U.S. President Donald Trump told the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference, recounting what he said to pharmaceutical executives about the progress toward a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Anthony Fauci, the long-time leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been telling the president repeatedly that developing the vaccine will take at least a year and a half—the same message conveyed by pharmaceutical executives. Apparently, Trump thought that simply repeating his request would change the outcome.

China has rightfully taken criticism for squelching attempts by scientists to report information during the outbreak. Now, the United States government is doing similar things. Informing Fauci and other government scientists that they must clear all public comments with Vice President Mike Pence is unacceptable. This is not a time for someone who denies evolution, climate change, and the dangers of smoking to shape the public message. Thank goodness Fauci, Francis Collins [director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)], and their colleagues across federal agencies are willing to soldier on and are gradually getting the message out.

While scientists are trying to share facts about the epidemic, the administration either blocks those facts or restates them with contradictions. Transmission rates and death rates are not measurements that can be changed with will and an extroverted presentation. The administration has repeatedly said—as it did last week—that virus spread in the United States is contained, when it is clear from genomic evidence that community spread is occurring in Washington state and beyond. That kind of distortion and denial is dangerous and almost certainly contributed to the federal government's sluggish response. After 3 years of debating whether the words of this administration matter, the words are now clearly a matter of life and death.

And although the steps required to produce a vaccine could possibly be made more efficient, many of them depend on biological and chemical processes that are essential. So the president might just as well have said, “Do me a favor, hurry up that warp drive.”

I don't expect politicians to know Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism or the Diels-Alder chemical reaction (although I can dream). But you can't insult science when you don't like it and then suddenly insist on something that science can't give on demand. For the past 4 years, President Trump's budgets have made deep cuts to science, including cuts to funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH. With this administration's disregard for science of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the stalled naming of a director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy—all to support political goals—the nation has had nearly 4 years of harming and ignoring science.

Now, the president suddenly needs science. But the centuries spent elucidating fundamental principles that govern the natural world—evolution, gravity, quantum mechanics—involved laying the groundwork for knowing what we can and cannot do. The ways that scientists accumulate and analyze evidence, apply inductive reasoning, and subject findings to scrutiny by peers have been proven over the years to give rise to robust knowledge. These processes are being applied to the COVID-19 crisis through international collaboration at breakneck, unprecedented speed; Science published two new papers earlier this month on SARS-CoV-2, and more are on the way. But the same concepts that are used to describe nature are used to create new tools. So, asking for a vaccine and distorting the science at the same time are shockingly dissonant.

A vaccine has to have a fundamental scientific basis. It has to be manufacturable. It has to be safe. This could take a year and a half—or much longer. Pharmaceutical executives have every incentive to get there quickly—they will be selling the vaccine after all—but thankfully, they also know that you can't break the laws of nature to get there.

Maybe we should be happy. Three years ago, the president declared his skepticism of vaccines and tried to launch an antivaccine task force. Now he suddenly loves vaccines.

But do us a favor, Mr. President. If you want something, start treating science and its principles with respect.