[2020-10-22]中国变得更好了，而我们病得更重了，谢谢你了，特朗普

当我观看特朗普和拜登的首场辩论时，一个画面突然出现在我的脑海。我想象中国人们也聚在一起看这场辩论，为了助兴，他们决定玩个喝酒的游戏。每当特朗普说出什么可笑或者让美国难堪的话，每个人就得喝一杯酒。不到半小时，所有人都喝醉了。
就是这样吧？他们看到的是他们以前从未见过的，一个语无伦次的美国总统失控的滑稽行为，一个显然不顾一切想要继续留任的人，因为一旦失败，他将面临起诉、羞辱和破产。
谁又能责怪中国人的幸灾乐祸呢？疫情目前已在中国得到控制，而美国仍饱受折磨，尽管这一切都是我们早就能预见到的。唉，我们并不是我们自以为的那样。
新冠疫情曾被认为是中国的切尔诺贝利，结果看上去更像是西方的滑铁卢。这就是约翰·米克尔思韦特和阿德里安·伍尔德里奇在他们的新书《警钟——大流行何以暴露西方的弱点，以及如何解决》中提出的观点。
美国每10万人中有65.74人死于新冠病毒，总人数约为21.6万人。中国每10万人中有0.34人死于新冠病毒，总人数约4750人。也许有人会说中国谎报了。好吧，把这个的数字再乘以四，就连这样，中国在保护其人民方面仍然比美国要好得多。
事实上，本月初，就在特朗普的白宫成为超级传播地点、数以百万计的美国人不敢把孩子送到学校的几天之后，在本地传播接近于零的中国，可以看到数以百万计的国民涌向汽车站、火车站和机场，在国庆假日前往全国各地旅行。据彭博社10月1日报道，“人民币在经历了12年来最好的一个季度后，作为避开波动的避风港而备受关注。”中国9月的进出口均大幅增长。我们曾经也有这样的成绩！
《经济学人》政治编辑的伍尔德里奇还说，今天我们正走向“始于500年前的历史大逆转，当时中国在世界经济中同样遥遥领先，占世界经济的四分之一，而且是到那时为止最成熟的政府。我们忘记了这些事情。中国却没有。如果亚洲能够重获500年前的领先地位，今年可能是关键的一年，除非西方国家醒过来”。
3月28日，特朗普宣布，“我们的国家正在与一个看不见的敌人作战。”他发誓要召唤“美国的全部力量”来击败它。但这一切根本就没有发生过。除了急救和医务人员之外，公众团结一致的行动和战时的牺牲意愿微乎其微，或者说是昙花一现。
在某种程度上，这是因为我们独特的个人主义文化、高度分散的地方-州-联邦分权系统、脆弱的公共卫生系统、分裂的政治体、其商业模式一直在削弱华盛顿的共和党、以及那么多从放大阴谋论并破坏真相及信任的社交网络中获取新闻的人。
但最不一样的是，我们现在有一位总统，他谋求连任的政治策略就是分化我们，摧毁信任，摧毁真相，并宣称任何与他的目标敌对的新闻都是“假的”。而在疫情之中，如果没有真相和信任，你就会迷失方向。
在1918年我们面对的上一次大流行中，很多美国人并不介意戴口罩，看看那些照片，因为他们的领导人要求他们这样做，并且以身作则。但这一次，总统从不将真相交给美国人，并且做出无视病毒和嘲笑戴口罩的榜样。所以，很多美国人再也不会以信任回报他了。
这样一来，我们可能再也无法理性地讨论，像我们这样的民主制度，在我们这样的文化之下，需要做出什么样的权衡。
总而言之，我们当今患上的病，用新冠疫苗是治不好的。我们已经失去对彼此、对制度以及最基本的是非观的信任，这些都是应对一场卫生危机所必须的。我们在此前的战争中有这些，但现在没有。拜登的胜利并不足以让美国康复，无论是政治上还是身体上，但这是必要的一步。与此同时，俄罗斯和中国，请先别侵略我们。我们现在跟过去不是一回事了。
--------------------------------

Mike Mike
Trump likes to call it the China virus. In early March we could almost have acceded to that claim. But since then it is the Trump virus all the way. The Trump virus spreads via misinformation, mismanagement, and plain old stupidity.

特朗普喜欢称之为“中国病毒”。在三月初，我们几乎可以同意这种说法。但从那之后，一直都是特朗普病毒。特朗普病毒通过错误的信息、管理不善和愚蠢的行为传播。

T R
Exactly. It’s the Trump-driven, GOP-sanctioned division that has rendered this nation incapable of properly reacting to the virus - or any other unusual event for that matter. The Romans used to say “divide et impera”. That was meant as an offensive strategy. We have applied it to ourselves and fumbled on the defense. By allowing ourselves to be divided, we have allowed the virus to ravage. Our enemies out there will have taken notice. They will have observed that we are incapable of responding to asymmetric threats.
So, in addition to screwing up the Coronavirus response and needlessly killing thousands of Americans, Trump and the Republican party have effectively weakened the nation as a whole.
Thanks very much!

没错。正是特朗普推动的、共和党批准的分裂，使得这个国家无法对病毒或任何其他与此相关的不寻常事件做出适当反应。罗马人过去常说“分而治之”。这是一种进攻策略。我们应用到了自己身上，但在防守上却不足。通过我们自己的分裂，我们让病毒肆虐。我们的敌人会注意到的。他们将注意到，我们无法对不对称的威胁作出反应。
因此，特朗普和共和党除了搞砸了对冠状病毒的反应，不必要地害死了无数美国人之外，还有效地削弱了整个国家。真是非常感谢！

SR
America is an experiment. China is an ancient civilization finding great rejuvenation. America is a watered down Europe with extra obese people without healthcare. Let us not kid ourselves into thinking we are competing against a wise and ancient civilization. It was good while it lasted though.

美国是一个实验。中国是一个寻求伟大复兴的古老文明。美国是一个没有医疗保障，肥胖人口过剩的简化欧洲。我们不要自欺欺人地认为我们是在与一个智慧而古老的文明进行竞争。不过，这段时间美国还是挺好的。

tedc
There are many things we don't know about the new virus. Many comments allude to the successful containment in Thailand by wearing masks but this may not be the entire story. In fact, all countries along the Mekong including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia have a relatively low infection rate.

关于这种新病毒，我们还有很多不知道的地方。许多评论间接提到泰国通过戴口罩成功遏制疫情，但这可能不是全部。事实上，包括越南、老挝和柬埔寨在内的湄公河沿岸所有国家的感染率都相对较低。

CDub
While I agree that our "leadership" (if it can even be called that) in the US during this crisis has failed us miserably, I think that the title associated with this article are troublesome, and exactly the kind of rhetoric that the far-right likes to use against the left. They think we want to be like China or have "buddied up" with them. This article does nothing to qualm those fears, but rather adds fuel to the fire.

尽管我同意我们在这场危机中的“领导力”(如果可以这么称呼的话)让我们非常失望，但我认为这篇文章的标题让我们不安，而且恰恰是极右派喜欢用来对付左派的那种言辞。他们认为我们想要像中国一样，或者与他们“结交”了。这篇文章并没有消除这些不安，反而火上浇油了。

Diogenes
China has already invaded us and is in the process of taking over from us as leading world power.

中国已经入侵了我们，并且正在取代我们成为世界头号强国。

Edward Brennan
To extol China right now is sort of like extolling Italy in the late 1930's because the trains ran on time.
Frankly. Mr Friedman's future for America appears to be a more competent dictatorship, than more competent democracies.
What is depressing is that in a world where people can both vote and fight COVID. Mr Friedman seems to want to get rid of the voting.
He hates Trump not because he is an authoritarian. But because Trump is an ineffective Dictator.

现在颂扬中国有点像三十年代末颂扬意大利一样，因为火车准点运行。
坦率地说，弗里德曼先生认为，美国的未来似乎是一个更有能力的独裁国家，而不是更有能力的民主国家。
令人沮丧的是，在这样一个人们既可以投票又可以对抗疫情的世界里。而弗里德曼先生似乎想取消投票权。
他讨厌特朗普，不是因为他是一个独裁者，而是因为他是一个无能的独裁者。

Pigsy
Though it may comfort you to think so. China mounted a coordinated national response. China's leadership gave a consistent and science based message to her citizens. Chinese citizens also have a great deal of pride. Not to mention a culture of caring about the whole and not just the self. But if it makes you sleep better to think of them as cowed thralls...

尽管这样想可能会让你感到安慰。中国采取了协调一致的国家应对措施。中国的领导层向她的公民传递了一个连贯的、科学的信息。中国公民也非常自豪。更不用说他们有一种关心整体而不仅仅是自我的文化。但是，如果把他们想象成胆小的奴隶能让你睡得更香的话...

David H
I regard as to be utterly and completely fatuous ANY comparisons between the USA -- a country where people have the right to vote, express opinions, assemble in protest and question authority -- and China, a totalitarian power.

在我看来，把美国和中国进行任何比较都是非常愚蠢的。美国是一个人民有权投票、表达意见、集会抗议和质疑权威的国家，而中国是一个极权国家。

John
How can people think Trump did such a great job with Covid, when he couldn't even protect himself and his wife, after saying we have rounded the corner, and other equally ridiculous statements?
Con man and a liar.

怎么有人会认为特朗普在疫情上做得很出色？他甚至连自己和妻子都保护不了，他还说了我们已经度过了难关，还说了其他同样荒谬的话。
得了吧，这就是个骗子。

Charles
If we only had their form of government... Sigh

要是我们有他们的政府形式就好了... 唉

AynRant
Evolution, the survival of the fittest, applies to nations as well as to species.
Avoiding and winning wars among nations is not the only national survival issue. Within a nation, hostility and accommodation among internal factions affects survivability. The flexibility to respond to change is also a factor for national survival.
Mr. Friedman attributes the failure of the US to contain the coronavirus pandemic to an ineffective leader. The blame lies with far more than a President who was elected by the Electoral College and rejected by the popular vote. It lies with the entirety of our governance and a large, but not majority, proportion of the electorate.
Our Constitution establishes an archaic federal structure of ill-proportioned states. It establishes a federal government of administrative, legislating, and adjudicating branches that are burdened with the hubris of 200 years, vulnerable to two-party politics, and unresponsive to the will of the people.

进化，适者生存，不仅适用于物种，也适用于民族。
避免和赢得国与国之间的战争并不是国家生存的唯一问题。在一个国家内部，内部派系之间的敌对与和解会影响生存能力。应对变化的灵活性也是国家生存的一个因素。
弗里德曼先生将美国未能遏制新冠疫情归咎于一位无能的领导人。罪魁祸首不仅仅在于一位由选举团选出并被普选否决的总统。这取决于我们的整个治理和大部分但不是多数选民。
我们的宪法建立了一个由比例失调的州组成的陈旧的联邦结构。它建立了一个由行政、立法和裁决部门组成的联邦政府，这些部门背负着200年来的傲慢，容易受到两党政治的影响，对人民的意愿反应迟钝。

HP
Trump has accused china of hiding facts and not having done enough to prevent spread of virus. But what did Trump do even after knowing the seriousness way back in early February? At least,China introduced very tough mitigation measure even if they seemed drastic. Americans still do not abide by basic precautions . To expect them to agree to a complete lockdown(as in Wuhan) would be unimaginable. So, it is either liberty or freedom. When it comes to a pandemic, sacrificing liberty(as in Wuhan,China) can give freedom to have a normal life sooner than later( again,as in China).

特朗普指责中国隐瞒事实，没有采取足够措施防止病毒传播。但特朗普早在2月初就已经知道了问题的严重性，他到底做了什么？至少，中国采取了非常严厉的缓解措施，尽管这些措施似乎有些过激。但美国人仍然不遵守基本的预防措施。期望他们同意全面封锁(就像在武汉那样)是想象不来的。所以，不是自由，就是自由。当疫情爆发时，牺牲自由(就像中国武汉)可以让人们早日过上正常的生活(同样，就像中国)。

M Martínez
The message is: "You don't deserve freedoms if you can't effectively control COVID-19". Sad.

传达的信息就是：“如果你不能有效地控制新冠疫情，你就不值得拥有自由。”真可悲。

Georglen
"In the meantime, Russia and China, please do not invade us right now. We aren’t who we used to be."
No kidding. It is useless to think back to WWW II longingly. The 25 year old Americans of 1942 were nothing like those of 2020.
Remember JFK's "ask what you can do for your country"? And young Americans joined the Peace Corps. Are today's young Americans anything like that?
Trump is only part of the cause. The fact that any Americans voted for him and, amazingly, still support his re-election, is the real cause.

“与此同时，俄罗斯和中国，请先别侵略我们。我们现在跟过去不是一回事了。”
别开玩笑了。渴望地回顾第二次世界大战是没有用的。1942年25岁的美国人和2020年的人完全不同。
还记得肯尼迪的“问问自己能为国家做些什么”吗？当时年轻的美国人加入了和平工作团（译者注：送美国青年去其他国家义务工作以建立国际友谊）。而今天的美国年轻人也能这样吗？
特朗普只是原因的一部分。事实上，所有的美国人都投票给他，令人惊讶的是，他们仍然支持他的连任，这才是真正的原因。

Smilodon7
It’s not the young who are the biggest problem. It’s the older people who keep trying to solve 2020 problems with 1950 solutions.

最大的问题不是年轻人。是老人一直试图用1950年的解决方案来解决2020年的问题。

Akachukwu
China Got Better. We Got Sicker. Thanks, Trump.
A proper epithet for Mr. Trump's trade war.

“中国变得更好了，我们病得更重了。谢谢你了，特朗普。”
这是对特朗普先生贸易战的恰当形容。

MountainGirl
China got better, we got sicker - Wasn't this inevitable Mr. Friedman? China was fighting the virus while Mr. Trump was fighting with the Scientific community. China was closed and testing its people while Mr. Trump ordered the country to open and said not everybody should or can be tested. China , South Korea , New Zealand all knew that was one common enemy -The Virus while United States, Brazil, UK were fighting multiple "enemies" while letting the virus spread like wild fire.

中国变得更好了，我们病得更重了——这不是不可避免的吗，弗里德曼先生？
在特朗普先生与科学界斗争的时候，中国正在与病毒作斗争。当特朗普先生命令中国开放，并且说不是每个人都可以接受检测的时候，中国却封锁了并且检测它的人民。中国、韩国、新西兰都知道这是一个共同的敌人——病毒，而美国、巴西、英国却在与多个“敌人”作战，让病毒像野火一样蔓延。

Lewis Ford
If the USA had this kind of abominable political "leadership" and national "unity" after Pearl Harbor, I have no doubt we would have lost WWII.
For this we can thank Trump, GOP, Fox News, AM talk radio, bloodsucking corporate fat-cats, irresponsible social media, anti-science right-wing reactionaries, and our imbecilic anti-social individualism.
Goodbye to 20th century American excellence and exceptionalism. Hello Balkanized banana republic.

如果珍珠港事件后美国有这种令人憎恶的政治“领导”和国家“团结” ，我毫不怀疑我们会输掉二战。
为此，我们要感谢特朗普、共和党、福克斯新闻、AM脱口秀电台、嗜血的企业肥猫、不负责任的社交媒体、反科学的右翼反动派，以及我们愚蠢的反社会个人主义。
再见了，20世纪的美国卓越和例外主义。你好，巴尔干化香蕉共和国。

Pigsy
Finally. Finally, a piece, albeit an opinion piece, in the NYT acknowledging China's amazing success in dealing with COVID.
There are multiple sources of American failure, some of which are catalogued here. We have chosen to essentially ignore the greatest, and possibly most effective , public health mobilization of all time. China gave us a playbook. We need to look at it. We don't have to follow everything in it but we have to acknowledge that it worked and we need to understand why. But we continue to deny their success as well as science. And we insist on conflating acknowledging the soundness of their approach with supporting all of China's policies about everything. And here we are....

最后，《纽约时报》终于发表了这样一篇文章，虽然是一篇观点文章，承认中国在处理新冠疫情上取得了惊人的成功。
美国失败的原因有很多，这里列出了其中一些原因。我们基本上选择忽视有史以来最大规模、也可能是最有效的公共卫生动员。中国给了我们一本剧本。我们需要看看。我们不需要遵循每件事情，但是我们必须承认它起作用了，我们需要理解为什么。但是我们还在继续否认他们的成功和科学。我们坚持把承认他们方法的正确性，与支持中国的所有政策混为一谈。现在我们停在这一步....

Buddy
This column doesn't mention enough the real reason for our virus debacle. It is not that Americans are too individualistic, its that we have an incompetant president who modeled none of the correct behaviors, turning mask wearing into political partisanship when it was always just medical truth.
An eight grader could have led the country better.

这篇专栏文章没有充分提到我们疫情崩溃的真正原因。这并不是因为美国人过于个人主义，而是因为我们有一个无能的总统，他没有任何正确的行为模式，把戴口罩变成了政治党派之争，而这一切本来只是医学上的事实。
一个八年级的学生本可以更好领导这个国家。

Cedric
China or Russia might take this moment of vulnerability to invade us. After all, not only is Trump's government incompetent and non-functional, but most of the military leaders are currently quarantined. Not to worry. We are protected from hostile actions by Trump's incompetence. Neither China nor Russia would want to do anything that spoils Trump's chances of getting re-elected.

中国或俄罗斯可能会利用这个脆弱的时刻来入侵我们。毕竟，不仅特朗普的政府无能，没有作用，而且大多数军方领导人目前都被隔离。但不用担心。特朗普的无能保护了我们免受敌对行动的伤害。无论是中国还是俄罗斯都不想做任何破坏特朗普连任机会的事情。

Alan Singer
Dear NYT & Thomas Freidman
Regarding "China got better". Please refer to an opinion article by Robert Reich in 2016 (I think in The Guardian) which was headlined "Trump will make China great again!". Well done Prof Reich! I put the article up on my College office door and someone quickly removed it.

亲爱的托马斯·弗雷德曼
关于“中国变得更好了”。请参考罗伯特 · 赖希在2016年发表的一篇评论文章(我想是在《卫报》上) ，标题是《特朗普将让中国再次伟大! 》干得好，赖希教授！我把这篇文章贴在我大学办公室的门上，很快就有人把它拿走了。

Ralph Möllers
Like (almost) all other western capitalist countries, actually.

实际上，就像(几乎)所有其它西方资本主义国家一样。

Opinioned!
Russia doesn’t need to invade us.
If Trump gets reelected, he himself will make the USA a Russian state — and the Republicans will call this move patriotic.

俄罗斯没有必要侵略我们。
如果特朗普获得连任，他本人将把美国变成一个俄罗斯州，共和党人将把这一举动称为爱国。

EB
Surely by now we should all understand that we can't go back to work until virus transmission is decreased to near zero, as the Chinese have done. China was able to reopen because they first locked down hard to bring the virus under control. As a consequence their economy is growing again, kids are back in school, and their society is back to a new normal.

当然，现在我们都应该明白，我们不能回去工作，直到病毒传播降低到接近零，就像中国人所做的那样。中国之所以能够重新开放，是因为他们首先努力控制病毒。因此，他们的经济再次增长，孩子们回到了学校，他们的社会回到了一个新的正常状态。

Smokes
So true. Even Sweden has done far better than we have and they don't even wear masks or social distance and yet only 1 person per day dies of COVID. Shame on Trump!

太对了。甚至瑞典也比我们做得好得多，他们甚至不戴口罩，也不与人保持社交距离，但平均每天只有一人死于新冠。为特朗普感到羞耻！

Real Observer
China is no paradise. But, Trump and the GOP's handling of covid is pathetic. Trump caught covid and made all his staff sick. There is some chance it was all staged though, so he could get a sympathy vote.

中国不是天堂。但是，特朗普和共和党对待新冠疫情的方式很可悲。特朗普感染了新冠病毒，让他所有的员工都生病了。不过也有可能这一切都是假的，这样他就能得到同情票。

Ski bum
"That used to be us!"
Yes Mr. Friedman, that used to be us and we used to be great. We helped save the world from fascism and tyranny; we created the greatest economy the world has seen; and we were a beacon of hope to millions of immigrants.
'Make America Great Again' has been a soothsaying that really means Make America Less.
Even the Roman Empire has its downfall, maybe from overextending itself or maybe simply because their water systems were lined in lead and most suffered lead poisoning.
Ironic that the downfall of America will be traced to a virus that no one can see, touch or feel.
Mother Nature has a cruel sense of humor.

“曾经我们也是这样的! ”
是的，弗里德曼先生，我们曾经也是这样，我们曾经很伟大。我们帮助把世界从法西斯主义和暴政中拯救出来；我们创造了世界上最伟大的经济体；我们是数百万移民的希望灯塔。
“让美国再次伟大”一直是一种预言，真正的意思是让美国变得更弱。
甚至连罗马帝国也有它衰落的时候，可能是因为它自身过度扩张，也可能仅仅是因为他们供水系统里的铅，大多数人都遭受了铅中毒。
讽刺的是，美国的衰落将被归结为一种没有人能够看到、摸到或感觉到的病毒。
大自然母亲有一种残酷的幽默感。

Joe
This title helps Trump. Negative (sounds anti-American to many) and appearing to be pro-China. So many in the media fall for Trump’s trap. They talk about him constantly and make statements that offend people.

这篇文章的标题对特朗普有利。消极(对许多人来说听上去是反美的)，并且看起来是亲中国的。很多媒体人都中了特朗普的圈套。他们不断地谈论他，说一些冒犯人的话。

MM
Anyone who trusts any information coming out from China should never be trusted.

任何相信来自中国任何信息的人都不应该信任。

Olivia
Mr. Friedman: Your last paragraph about China invading us - this feeds into general anti-Chinese rhetoric that Trump and his administration have used (to deflect from their incompetence). A lot of Asian-Americans are suffering as a result of this rise in anti-Asian sentiment and your article isn't helpful.

弗里德曼先生：你最后一段关于中国会侵略我们，这助长了特朗普和他的政府所使用的普遍的反华言论(为了转移他们的无能)。许多亚裔美国人正因为反亚洲情绪的上升而遭受痛苦，而你的文章对此毫无帮助。

stonetrouble
“Authoritarian” is a word of infinite flexibility. It is a word only used to describe others, never oneself. It is a word of intellectual laziness. China was able to contain the pandemic, not because of its “authoritarian” tools, the same tools every Western government also uses, but because China has the trust of its people. This trust has been built by 40 years of continuous improvement in the lives of the Chinese people.
The government of China has the highest approval rating on earth, 85% according to Pew Research. The US approval rating is just 31%. This year, China became the first country in history to eliminate extreme poverty – income less than $2 per day. This fact has barely earned a mention on the pages of the New York Times.
My friends in China are astonished when I tell them that very many Americans still refuse to wear a mask. They cannot understand this level of public distrust. This distrust in government was not caused by Trump. Just the opposite, Trump was caused by public distrust.

“威权”是一个具有无限灵活性的词。这个词只用来形容别人，而不是自己。这是一个智力懒惰的词。中国之所以能够遏制这场疫情，不是因为它的“威权”工具（每个西方政府都使用的工具），而是因为中国人民信任中国。40年来，中国人民的生活不断改善，建立了这种信任。
根据皮尤研究中心的数据，中国政府拥有世界上最高的支持率，85%。美国的支持率只有31%。今年，中国成为历史上第一个消除极端贫困（日收入不足2美元）的国家。这一事实几乎没有在《纽约时报》上被提及。
当我告诉中国的朋友，很多美国人仍然拒绝戴口罩时，他们感到很惊讶。他们无法理解公众这么不信任的程度。这种对政府的不信任不是由特朗普产生的。恰恰相反，特朗普是由公众的不信任产生的。

Cassandra
China has had its ups and downs during its 4000 years of recorded history, but we should remember that for much of this time China was the most advanced country in the world.

中国在有文字记载的4000年历史中有经历过起起伏伏，但我们应该记住，在大部分时间里，中国都是世界上最发达的国家。

AKJersey
Trump wants to make Russia our friend and China our enemy.
But Trump has it backwards. The US and China are working together as the two leading world economies.
Russia, on the other hand, makes nothing that the US needs, and exports only oil and gas. Russia is not a major economic power – its economy is about the size of Canada’s. Furthermore, Vladimir Putin is working actively to disrupt America, and to re-elect Trump.
Regarding COVID, under ANY normal president, the US would have been working with China, allies, and international agencies last November and December, to prevent this pandemic to begin with. But Trump does not work well with others.
For our own economic future, we need to work closely with China, and we should work to contain the political influence of Russia.
There can be no progress in health or economics until Trump leaves office in Jan. 2021.

特朗普想让俄罗斯成为我们的朋友，让中国成为我们的敌人。
但特朗普搞反了。美国和中国作为世界两大经济体正在合作。
另一方面，俄罗斯没有制造美国需要的任何东西，只出口石油和天然气。俄罗斯不是一个经济大国，其经济规模与加拿大相当。此外，弗拉基米尔 · 普京正在积极扰乱美国，并让特朗普连任。
至于新冠疫情，在任何一位正常总统的领导下，美国都会在去年11月和12月与中国、盟国和国际机构合作，从一开始就阻止这场疫情的蔓延。但特朗普与其他国家合作不顺利。
为了我们自己的经济未来，我们需要与中国密切合作，我们应该努力遏制俄罗斯的政治影响力。
在特朗普2021年1月离任之前，在医疗或经济领域不会有任何进展。

zane
china can handle it better because china experienced so many pandemics and disasters in its 4000 years recorded history, it has learnt its lessons as how to survive a pandemic and disaster: make sacrifice, discipline themselves, citizens listen to the government, government listen to the experts and most importantly, only the learnt , intelligent and capable people can be selected to hold government positions. actually, most asian countries do the same as china does.

中国可以更好地处理，是因为中国在其4000年的历史记录中经历了非常多的大流行和灾难，它学到了如何在大流行和灾难中生存的教训：做出牺牲，自律，公民听政府的话，政府听专家的话，最重要的是，只有有知识、有智慧、有能力的人才能被选中担任政府职位。事实上，大多数亚洲国家都和中国一样。

michael
Trump is merely another symptom of our demise; not the cause. He'll be gone soon and it won't make any significant difference.
Good luck America.

特朗普只是我们灭亡的另一个症状，而不是原因。他很快就会离开，这不会有任何大的不同。
祝美国好运。

Gabor
Now, the Trump administration acknowledges that they fully support "herd immunity".
This will not only cause more sickness and deaths but place an additional major strain on the economy.
Until people see the corpse holding refrigerator trucks on their street, many of our fellow citizens will continue to ignore the virus.

现在，特朗普政府承认他们完全支持“群体免疫”。
这不仅会导致更多的病例和死亡，而且会给经济带来额外的重大压力。
除非人们在他们的街道上看到尸体被抬进冷藏卡车，否则我们的许多同胞将继续忽视这种病毒。

damon walton
China even though a communist country with some limited free market elements has more competent leadership than us. Yes, they made some mistakes at the outset. But were able to make adjustments and had the ability to employ a national strategy rather quickly in an uniform fashion. Also they didn't have a citizenry that took a hostile view to a simple directive of wearing a mask. They didn't have a leader tell his base to liberate Michigan and Virginia because they were trying to enact lifesaving measures. Finally, they don't have 40% of their population trying to attend a daily yet deadly propaganda rally led by a Super Spreader in Chief...where a recently bed ridden president claims to be cured or immune from a lethal pathogen. I guess this what 'freedom' looks like with 218,096[as of today] Americans dead from a criminally inept president who has the gall to want 4 more years with blood on his hands..

尽管中国是一个共产主义国家，自由市场的元素有限，但领导能力却比我们强。是的，他们一开始犯了一些错误。但是他们能够做出调整，并且有能力以统一的方式相当迅速地实施国家战略。而且他们没有公民对戴口罩这一简单的指令持有敌意的态度。他们没有一个领导者告诉他的支持者去解放密歇根州和弗吉尼亚州，因为他们正试图制定拯救生命的措施。最后，他们没有40%的人口试图参加每天由超级传播者领导的致命的宣传集会... 一个最近卧床不起的总统宣称已经治愈或者对致命的病原体免疫。我猜这就是“自由”的样子吧，(截至今天)218096名美国人死于一位无能的犯罪总统之手，他竟然厚颜无耻地要求在自己手上沾满鲜血的情况下再干4年。

Tom Thumb
The scary thing is that we might look back on this time before the 2020 election as the calm before the storm...

可怕的是，当我们回顾2020年大选前的这段时期时，我们可能会认为这是风暴前的平静...

Jackson
Why would anyone believe China’s numbers - ever?

为什么会有人相信中国的数字？

Nicholas DeLuca
@Jackson
Why would anyone ever believe Trump is the more important question .

为什么会有人相信特朗普，才是更重要的问题。

Think
There’re US journalists based in China. Just simply read their reports and find your own truth.

有一些美国记者常驻中国，只要读读他们的报道，就能找到你自己的真相。

William
Voting Trump out of power is the single most vital step for restoring the safety and well-being of our country. Vote!

投票让特朗普下台是恢复我们国家安全和福祉最重要的一步。投票！

Melanie Lawrence
Gone unnoticed: Covid deaths in the US recently surpassed the total number of Americans who died in combat during the Civil War (214,938). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
Thanks, Trump.

没有人注意到的是：美国最近的新冠病毒死亡人数已经超过了美国内战期间死于战争的总人数(214938人)。详见维基百科。
谢谢你了，特朗普。

Rick Morris
Mr. Friedman in his last sentence implores China and Russia to not invade us in our time of incoherence. To which it could be said, the very unfitness and instability of Trump that frightens so many millions of Americans does the same for them. China or Russia might be tempted to take advantage of us right now, but can they be certain of our President’s response? No, and neither are we.

弗里德曼先生在他的最后一句话中恳求中国和俄罗斯不要在我们这个混乱的时代侵略我们。可以这么说，特朗普的不适应性和不稳定性让数百万美国人感到害怕，这对他们来说也是一样的。中国或俄罗斯现在可能想占我们的便宜，但他们能判断我们总统的反应吗？不，我们也不能。

Halsy
And if we had globally sanctioned and boycotted China as we should none of this would have happened in the first place. China is the problem on every front.

如果我们像我们应该做的那样，在全球范围内制裁和抵制中国，这些事情一开始就不会发生。中国在各个方面都是个问题。

Clearheaded
Global sanctions and the boycott of Chinese goods would be a pistol to the temple of the American economy. We would not last longer than a few months before descending into Civil War II.

全球制裁和对中国商品的抵制将成为射向美国经济太阳穴的一把手枪。我们坚持不了几个月的，就会陷入了第二次内战。

Long-Term Observer
Trump has made it clear he wants herd immunity. His super-spreader events are part of this strategy.

特朗普已经明确表示，他想要群体免疫。他的超级传播事件就是这种策略的一部分。

Emory
Trump thinks money is more important to Americans than their elderly parents' lives. As Michael Cohen pointed out, it is money that that makes him bow down to the world's richest man, Putin. Trump would do anything for money. Would the majority of Americans? We'll see.

特朗普认为，对美国人来说，钱比他们年迈父母的生命更重要。正如迈克尔 · 科恩指出的那样，正是金钱让他向世界上最富有的人普京低头。特朗普为了钱什么都愿意做。大多数美国人会吗？我们拭目以待。

Michael
China is run by leaders who are atheists and put their faith in science. The U.S. is run by leaders who'd rather put their faith in the Bible. There's nothing wrong with that except they forgot the part about human compassion.

中国的领导者们都是无神论者，他们相信科学。美国的领导者们宁愿相信圣经。这并没有什么不对的，除了他们忘记了人类同情心的部分。

bobbybow
We are a rudderless vessel drifting in dangerous seas.
Captain Trump is worried about the appearance of the ship more than the safety of the ship and it's occupants.
November 4 promises to be the re-birth of our Nation.

我们是一艘无舵的船，在危险的海上漂流。
特朗普船长更担心的是船的外观，而不是船和船上人员的安全。
11月4日将是我们国家的重生日。

victor g
The pandemic did not expose the weakness of the West. The west is not weak.
It exposed an inept, clumsy, useless, unskilled Donald Trump and his family whose base is an uneducated mob who can’t see beyond their nose. The administration, and Supreme Court judges put in place by this president are useless pawns - dream works of a despot.

疫情并没有暴露出西方的弱点，西方并不软弱。
这暴露了特朗普和他的家人无能、笨拙、没用、没特长，他们的支持者是一群没有受过教育的暴徒，他们看不见鼻子以外的东西。这位总统任命的行政部门和最高法院法官都是无用的棋子，是暴君的梦想作品。

David
It's too late. We have lost and China has won. It's pretty obvious. Heck, we can no longer even field an army because 42% of Americans are repulsively obese and the next 30% are just extremely fat. Look around. Even the kids are so fat now. We won't even mention that China graduates two and a half times as engineers as we do or that they produce way more steel than we do. And then, even college graduates here think vaccines are dangerous. We are going down and we won't be coming back, ever.

太晚了。我们输了，中国赢了。这很明显。草，我们甚至不能再派出一支军队，因为42%的美国人胖得令人发指，而剩下的30%则是极度肥胖。看看周围。现在连孩子们都这么胖了。我们甚至不会提到中国的毕业率是我们的两倍半，或者他们生产的钢铁比我们多得多。甚至这里的大学毕业生也认为疫苗是危险的。我们要走下坡路了，再也不会回头了。

JPH
There is a bad second wave in Europe now with 10 000 cases per million in France for example, 5 000 in Italy, 14 000 cases per million in Spain, but only 4 000 in Germany.
The USA have never passed the first wave and have now 24 000 cases per million.

现在欧洲出现了严重的第二波疫情，例如每百万人法国有1万例感染、意大利有5000例、西班牙有1.4万例，但德国只有4000例。
美国从来没有挺过第一波，现在每百万人有2.4万病例。

mikecz
What is wrong with us? Why are there so many people who don't understand that if we don't start doing things differently - NOW - this situation could go on FOR YEARS?

我们到底怎么了？为什么有那么多人不明白，如果我们现在不开始采取不同的做法，这种情况可能会持续数年吧？

Jaco
@mikecz
Perhaps you could elaborate? What "things" should be done differently?

或许你可以详细说明一下? 有什么“事情”应该用不同的方式处理呢？

mlbex
When the world gets back to something resembling normal, they're going to be halfway around the track while we're still at the starting gate. Being an autocracy gives it the advantage in things like that.

当世界重回正轨时，他们会跑到一半的路程，而我们还在起跑线上。作为一个极权国家，它在这类事情上占有优势。

Herry
How can you believe any numbers coming from China? They have the best PR machine in the world.

你们怎么能相信任何来自中国的数字？他们拥有世界上最好的公关机器.

Leto
This is the sorry state America is in. Many people cannot tell facts from falsehoods. They only believe what they want to believe instead of putting in the effort to discern the facts.

这就是美国所处的悲惨境地。许多人分不清事实和谎言。他们只相信他们想相信的东西，而不是努力去辨别事实。

Cassandra Schwarz
@Herry, That's so funny---you really think China has the best PR machine in the world?? No, no, you are mistaken. That would very clearly be the USA.

真有意思啊，你真的认为中国有世界上最好的公关机器吗？不不，你搞错了。很明显，那就是美国。

IdoltrousInfidel
China's effective containment of the virus, the scale of which as compared to rest of the world in monumental in its effectiveness, showed what many, including myself are reluctant to accept. Its a far more effective administration than any in the world now and we cannot just excuse ourselves by saying they have an authoratarian system. There are many countries with authiratarian systems and none came close to as effective as China.

中国对病毒的有效遏制，与世界其他地区相比，其规模之大，成效之显著，向许多人展示了，包括我自己都不愿意接受的事实。它是目前世界上最有效的行政管理机构，我们不能仅仅以他们有一个威权体系为借口。许多国家都有威权体系，但没有一个国家像中国那样有效。

Z
This isn’t about authoritarianism vs. democracy and individualism. Many democracies like South Korea did fine. Even Canada did much better than us and they are also an individualistic democratic country.
We did poorly because Trump’s team did nothing to stop the pandemic early because they wanted to use it to push through their anti-trade, anti-immigration, anti-China agenda. Early on, the Secretary of Commerce said the pandemic would bring jobs back to North America, the original team to respond to the pandemic was led by national security people who were more interested in attacking China rather than containing the virus, and they used the pandemic to push through extreme restrictions on travel and immigration that are still in place today even as they complain about Democratic governors leaving actually public health-motivated containment measures in place too long.

这不是威权主义与民主和个人主义的对抗。许多民主国家，比如韩国，都做得不错。甚至加拿大也比我们做得好得多，他们也是个人主义的民主国家。
我们之所以做得不好，是因为特朗普的团队没有采取任何措施，尽早阻止这场大流行病，因为他们想利用它来推动反贸易、反移民、反中国的议程。早些时候，美国商务部长还表示，疫情将为北美带来就业机会。最初应对疫情的团队是由国家安全人员领导的，他们更感兴趣的是攻击中国，而不是遏制病毒。他们利用疫情推动了对旅行和移民的极端限制，这些限制至今仍然存在，甚至他们还抱怨，民主党州长把以公共健康为目标的遏制措施做太久了。

joe new england
Honest Trump 2020 signs, truth be told, should read: " MARA," or "MACA," referring to Russia or China.

老实说，特朗普2020的标语，应该是“MARA”或“MACA”，指的是俄罗斯或中国。

Bob
China is run by technocrats and is authoritarian. Technocrats tend to follow science and in China they are going all out on employing digital technology. While the US is not authoritarian the president from all appearances is a fascist and therefore dismisses science because all truth is supposed to come from the fascist leader. Therefore even though Trump knows nothing about epidemiology, when it comes to the Covid-19 he puts himself about the CDC, Anthony Fauci, etc and has made wild statements that unfortunately many of his followers believe. It is easy to predict that Trump's attitude would lead to a national disaster and it did of course being the fascist leader he denies it.

中国是由技术官僚管理的威权国家。技术官僚倾向于追随科学，而在中国，他们全力以赴地使用数字技术。尽管美国不是威权国家，但总统从表面上看是个法西斯主义者，所以他对科学不屑一顾，因为所有的真相都应该来自法西斯领导人。所以，即使特朗普对流行病学一无所知，但当谈到新冠病毒时，他把自己描述成疾病预防控制中心的安东尼·福西等人，并且不幸地发表了许多他的追随者都相信的疯狂言论。很容易预测到特朗普的态度将导致一场全国性的灾难，当然他作为法西斯领导人，肯定会否认这点。

lee
The time of the West is over....The age of East Asia has begun...It is coming to full cycle now.

西方的时代已经结束... 东亚的时代已经开始... 现在正进入一个完整的周期。

Peter
As with all of your thoughtful and powerfully simple pieces, I hope The Times will consider translating this one into other languages, including Spanish.

我希望《纽约时报》能考虑把这篇文章翻译成其他语言，包括西班牙语。

Nick
Trump has always done things for his own gain. However in fighting Covid he failed and failed biggly—not only does he "lead" the country most affected by Covid, his own White House is a supper-spreader, and Donald himself got zapped by the virus.
Trump lies, we die.

特朗普总是为了自己的利益而行事。然而，在与新冠疫情的斗争中，他失败了，并且遭受了巨大的失败，他不仅“领导”了受新冠疫情影响最严重的国家，他自己的白宫也是一个超级传播者，而唐纳德自己也被病毒攻击了。
特朗普撒谎，我们死了。

Greg
China? Russia? Invade the US? We're too infected to invade.

中国? 俄罗斯? 要侵略美国? 我们已经严重感染到无法被入侵了。

Michael Attinson
As usual a very insightful article. America is a sick country and I am not sure that any president, even Biden, will be able to contain the internal rot that is destroying us. Our government is incapable of governing, and it really hurts to see how the Far East, not all authoritarian governments, have infrastructures that should be models for improving and replacing our outdated transportation and communication.

像往常一样，这是一篇非常有见地的文章。美国是一个病态的国家，我不确定任何一位总统，甚至是拜登，是否能够遏制正在摧毁我们的内部腐败。我们的政府没有能力治理国家，看看远东地区，不是所有的独裁政府，他们拥有了本应该是我们改善和取代过时交通和通讯的基础设施，确实令人痛心。

MARY
My son had a Trump-Biden watch party in Shanghai (that's in China) invited his work colleagues to see our democratic process in all its glory. I asked him how his guests (all Chinese) reacted - they laughed.... I felt embarrassed.
Alas, we aren't who we think we are. Yep. Far from it.

我儿子在上海(在中国)举办了一场特朗普-拜登观摩会，邀请他的同事们来看看我们民主进程的辉煌时刻。我问他，客人们(都是中国人)有什么反应——他们都笑了... 我感到很尴尬。
唉，我们并不是我们想象的那样。是的，远非如此。