每日英語跟讀 Ep.K270: Europe’s COVID Culture War Plays Out in Pockets of Germany

Sven Müller is proudly unvaccinated. He thinks COVID-19 vaccines are neither effective nor safe but a way to make money for pharmaceutical companies and corrupt politicians who are taking away his freedom.

斯凡．穆勒對未接種疫苗感到自豪。他認為新冠疫苗既不有效也不安全，是幫製藥公司及剝奪他自由的腐敗政客賺錢的一種方式。

Under state rules to stem coronavirus infections, he is no longer allowed to go to restaurants, to the bowling alley, to the cinema or to the hairdresser. From next week, he will be barred from entering most shops, too. But that has only strengthened his resolve.

遏制新冠病毒感染的邦法規定，他不得進入餐館、保齡球館、電影院或找理髮師。從下周起，他還被禁止進入多數商店，但這只會堅定他的決心。

“They can’t break me,” said Müller, 40, a bar owner in the town of Annaberg-Buchholz, in the Ore Mountain region in the eastern state of Saxony where the vaccination rate is 44% — the lowest in Germany.

40歲的穆勒說：「他們打不倒我。」他是德東薩克森邦厄爾士山區安娜貝格布赫霍爾茨鎮的一名酒吧老闆，當地疫苗接種率是全德國最低的44%。

Müller personifies a problem that is as sharp in some parts of Europe as it is in the United States. If Germany had red and blue states, Saxony would be crimson. In places like this, pockets of unvaccinated people are driving the latest round of contagion, filling strained hospital wards, putting economic recoveries at risk and sending governments scrambling to head off a fourth wave of the pandemic.

歐洲某些地區，有個問題與美國一樣激烈，穆勒是此事化身。若德國有紅州和藍州，薩克森邦將是深紅。在這樣的地方，一小群未接種疫苗的人正引發最新一波疫情，使得捉襟見肘的醫院病房人滿為患，令經濟復甦面臨風險，並讓政府在阻止第四波疫情爆發上疲於奔命。

Western European governments are resorting increasingly to thinly veiled coercion with a mixture of mandates, inducements and punishments.

西歐國家政府正逐漸採取幾乎不加掩飾的強制手段，包括強制令、誘導及處罰。

In many countries, it is working. When President Emmanuel Macron announced in July that vaccine passports would be required to enter most social venues, France — where anti-vaccine sentiment was strong — was one of the least vaccinated countries in Europe. Today it has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

在許多國家，此舉正在發揮作用。今年7月，法國總統馬克宏宣布，進入大多數社交場所必須持有疫苗護照。當時，反疫苗情緒強烈的法國是歐洲接種疫苗最少的國家之一。如今它是世界上疫苗接種率最高國家之一。

Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy followed Macron’s lead with even tougher measures. There, and in Spain, too, attempts by populist parties to stoke a broad-based anti-vaccine backlash have largely been snuffed out.

義大利總理德拉吉跟隨馬克宏帶領，採取了更嚴厲措施。在西班牙，民粹主義政黨激起廣大反疫苗反對聲浪的企圖，基本上也被撲滅。

But regional resistance against the coronavirus vaccine remains. In Central and Eastern Europe — and in the German-speaking countries and regions bordering them — the problem is more stubborn.

但地區性抗拒疫苗的情況依舊存在。在中歐、東歐及相鄰的德語國家和地區，這個問題更棘手。

In Italy, the northern province of Bolzano — bordering Austria and Switzerland, where 70% of the population is German-speaking — has the country’s lowest vaccination rate.

在義大利，靠近奧地利與瑞士邊界的北部省分波爾察諾有70%人口講德語，該省疫苗接種率全國最低。

“There is some correlation with far-right parties, but the main reason is this trust in nature,” said Patrick Franzoni, a doctor who spearheads the inoculation campaign in the province. Especially in the Alps, he said, the German-speaking population trusts fresh air, organic produce and herbal teas more than traditional drugs.

在該省率先發起疫苗接種運動的醫師派崔克．佛蘭佐尼說：「這與極右翼政黨有些關係，但主要原因是對自然的信任。」他表示，尤其在阿爾卑斯山區，說德語的民眾更相信新鮮空氣、有機農產品與花草茶，而不是傳統藥物。Source article : https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5919791