In pandemic preparedness(防范准备) work, scientists like to focus on the technical challenges: identifying pathogens(病原体), diagnosing infections, understanding their effects and developing vaccines and treatments. Each step promises progress through human innovation, investment and planning. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, brings experts together to identify and prioritise emerging disease threats and collect the evidence needed to prepare for them.(例如，世界卫生组织汇聚专家，共同识别并优先排序新发疾病威胁，并收集防范所需证据。) But preparedness depends on more than scientific innovation.
在大流行防范工作中，科学家们往往聚焦于技术层面的挑战：识别病原体、诊断感染、了解其影响，以及研发疫苗和疗法。每一步都承诺通过人类的创新、投入和规划取得进展。例如，世界卫生组织（WHO）汇聚专家，共同识别并优先排序新发疾病威胁，并收集防范所需证据。但防范工作所依赖的，远不止科学创新。
As the past week has shown, politics is the elephant in the room(显而易见却无人提及的问题) in all of this. No one could have predicted we would be talking about pneumonic plague(肺鼠疫), and that the death of a single lab worker in Russia would cause global headlines. It might feel like an overreaction(过度反应): the WHO deals with thousands of potential disease signals worldwide every month. But the circumstances of this case are unusual given the lack of transparency from Russian authorities on what happened – and ongoing concern about biological weapons research.(但鉴于俄罗斯当局对事件经过缺乏透明度，加上外界对生物武器研究的持续担忧，这起案件的情况非同寻常。)
过去一周的情况表明，政治才是这一切中那个谁都不愿点破的大问题。没人能预料到我们会谈论肺鼠疫，更没想到俄罗斯一名实验室工作人员之死会登上全球头条。这或许让人觉得反应过度：世卫组织每月要处理全球数千个潜在疾病信号。但鉴于俄罗斯当局对事件经过缺乏透明度，加上外界对生物武器研究的持续担忧，这起案件的情况非同寻常。
The 28-year-old lab worker died after developing severe pneumonia. She worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute(伊尔库茨克抗鼠疫研究所), established in 1934, which studies plague and other dangerous pathogens including anthrax(炭疽) and cholera(霍乱), and is rumoured(据传) to be involved in biological weapons research. Prof Ashish Jha, who was the US White House Covid-19 response coordinator, and who co-chaired an Ebola commission with me, wrote on social media: “US intelligence assess that Russia’s scientists continue developing biological weapons capabilities. Those programmes operate in secret. Nobody outside inspects them and nobody inside has much incentive(动力、激励) to admit when something goes wrong.”
这名28岁的实验室工作人员在出现严重肺炎后死亡。她供职于伊尔库茨克抗鼠疫研究所，该所成立于1934年，研究鼠疫以及炭疽、霍乱等其他危险病原体，并有传言称其参与生物武器研究。曾任美国白宫新冠应对协调员、与我共同主持过埃博拉委员会的阿希什·贾教授在社交媒体上写道：“美国情报界评估认为，俄罗斯科学家仍在发展生物武器能力。这些项目秘密运作。外部无人检查，内部也几乎没人有动力在出问题时承认。”