en-us	You had some exposures that may put you at risk for corona-virus. 
zh-cn	某些场合可能使你有感染冠状病毒的风险。

en-us	A few days later you come down with a bad cough yourself and feel a little short of breath and really tired. 
zh-cn	几天后，你咳嗽得厉害，感觉有点喘不上气，十分疲倦。

en-us	You take your temperature: 101 degrees. 
zh-cn	你量了一下体温：38度3。

en-us	A fever. 
zh-cn	发烧了。 

en-us	You suspect you might have Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel corona-virus. 
zh-cn	你怀疑你可能得了Covid-19——由新型冠状病毒引起的疾病。

en-us	The days roll into each other, and your doctor urges you to stay home unless your condition worsens. 
zh-cn	日子一天天过去，你的医生建议你待在家里，除非病情恶化。

en-us	You feel pretty bad, though, and finally get an appointment. 
zh-cn	但你感觉很难受，最终还是预约去看医生。 

en-us	They test you for influenza by sticking a swab far up your nose, and you are told the test came back negative, you don’t have flu. 
zh-cn	医生把拭子探进你鼻子深处，检测你是否患了流感，你被告知结果是阴性，并没有得流感。

en-us	They tell you they are saving the Covid-19 tests for those who are even worse off than you are. 
zh-cn	他们告诉你，Covid-19的检测得留给那些情况比你更糟的人。

en-us	You go home with a prescription for antibiotics, possibly because they don’t know what else to do, and read about celebrities who are testing positive but don’t seem so sick. 
zh-cn	你拿着抗生素处方回了家，可能是因为医生也不知道还能给你开什么药，你又看到一些名人检测结果是阳性，但似乎病得没那么严重。 

en-us	A couple of days later, still with fevers, you go back, and the doctors relent and test you for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. 
zh-cn	几天后，你还在发烧，又回到医院，医生们让了步，给你做了SARS-CoV-2检测，也就是 引发Covid-19的病毒。

en-us	They again stick something up your nose to what feels like the bottom of your eyeball. 
zh-cn	他们又把什么东西塞进你的鼻子里，仿佛捅到了眼球底部。 

en-us	They tell you that the results will be available in a couple of days and you go home and wait. 
zh-cn	他们告诉你检测结果要几天后才出，你可以回家等待。

en-us	Finally, the results come back and you are told you do not have Covid-19. 
zh-cn	最终，结果出来了，你被告知你并没患上Covid-19。

en-us	Now what? 
zh-cn	接下来该怎么办呢？ 

en-us	This is a real patient’s story. 
zh-cn	这是一则真实的病人故事。

en-us	In fact, it is a lot of people’s story — at least some version of it. 
zh-cn	事实上，也是很多人的经历——至少某些部分是一样的。

en-us	Across the world, people with signs and symptoms of Covid-19 are testing negative and wondering what it means. 
zh-cn	在世界各地，很多出现了Covid-19体征和症状的人检测结果呈阴性，他们想知道这意味着什 么。

en-us	They are not showing up in the statistics, and they are left in limbo about what to do next. 
zh-cn	这些人没有出现在确诊数据中，对下一步该做什么也束手无策。 

en-us	The problem may be with the test. 
zh-cn	问题或许出现在检测上。

en-us	Current corona-virus tests may have a particularly high rate of missing infections. 
zh-cn	目前的冠状病毒检测可能有特别高的漏检率。

en-us	The good news is that the tests appear to be highly specific: If your test comes back positive, it is almost certain you have the infection. 
zh-cn	好消息是，这种检测似乎是高度明确的：如果你的检测结果呈阳性，几乎可以肯定你感染了病毒。 

en-us	The most common test to detect the corona-virus involves a process known as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR, a jumble of words that describes a method capable of detecting virus particles that are generally present in respiratory secretions during the beginning of an infection. 
zh-cn	检测冠状病毒最常见的方法涉及一个称为“逆转录聚合酶链式反应”(RT-PCR)的过程，这一长串字是一种检测病毒颗粒的方法，这些颗粒通常出现在受感染初期的呼吸道分泌物中。

en-us	From a technical standpoint, under ideal conditions, these tests can detect small amounts of viral RNA. 
zh-cn	从技术角度看，在理想条件下，这些检测可以检测出少量的病毒核糖核酸(RNA)。 

en-us	In the real world, though, the experience can be quite different, and the virus can be missed. 
zh-cn	但在现实世界中，这一过程可能会大不相同，病毒可能会被漏掉。

en-us	The best the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can say is that if you test negative, “you probably were not infected at the time your specimen was collected.” 
zh-cn	疾病控制和预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)也只能说，如果你的检测结果为阴性，“你可能在进行样本采集的时候并没被感染。”

en-us	The key word there is “probably.” 
zh-cn	这里的关键字是“可能”。 

en-us	False-negative test results — tests that indicate you are not infected, when you are — seem to be uncomfortably common. 
zh-cn	假阴性的检测结果——即你已经被感染，但检测表明你没有——似乎是十分常见的现象。

en-us	Increasingly, and disturbingly, I hear a growing number of anecdotal stories from my fellow doctors of patients testing negative for coronavirus and then testing positive — or people who are almost certainly infected who are testing negative. 
zh-cn	令人不安的是，我逐渐从我的同行医生那里听到越来越多的轶事，比如病人的冠状病毒检测呈阴性，然后又呈阳性；或是有些几乎肯定被感染的人检测结果呈阴性。 

en-us	Unfortunately, we have very little public data on the false-negative rate for these tests in clinical practice. 
zh-cn	不幸的是，在临床实践中关于这些检测假阴性率的公开数据非常少。

en-us	Research coming out of China indicates that the false-negative rate may be around 30 percent. 
zh-cn	来自中国的研究表明假阴性率可能在30%左右。

en-us	Some of my colleagues, experts in laboratory medicine, express concerns the false-negative rate in this country could be even higher. 
zh-cn	我的一些检验医学专家同事担心，美国的假阴性率可能更高。 

en-us	There are many reasons a test would be falsely negative under real-life conditions. 
zh-cn	在现实情况中，有很多原因会导致检测呈假阴性。

en-us	Perhaps the sampling is inadequate. 
zh-cn	也许是取样不充分。

en-us	A common technique requires the collection of nasal secretions far back in the nose — and then rotating the swab several times. 
zh-cn	一种常见的方法是深入鼻子后部收集鼻分泌物，然后将拭子旋转几次。

en-us	That is not an easy procedure to perform or for patients to tolerate. 
zh-cn	这不是个容易完成的步骤，病人也难以忍受。

en-us	Other possible causes of false negative results are related to laboratory techniques and the substances used in the tests. 
zh-cn	其他可能导致假阴性结果的原因，则与实验技术和检测使用的物质有关。 

en-us	So, where does that leave us? 
zh-cn	那么，我们还能怎么办呢？

en-us	Even with more testing, we are likely to be underestimating the spread of the virus. 
zh-cn	即使进行更多检测，我们也可能会低估病毒的传播。

en-us	For now, we should assume that anyone could be carrying the virus. 
zh-cn	眼下，我们应该假设任何人都可能携带病毒。

en-us	If you have had likely exposures and symptoms suggest Covid-19 infection, you probably have it — even if your test is negative. 
zh-cn	如果你可能接触过病毒，并显出Coivd-19的症状，那么你可能已经被感染——哪怕你的检测结果是阴性。

en-us	We should all continue to practice the behaviors — rigorous hand washing, not touching the face, social distancing — that impede its spread. 
zh-cn	我们都应该坚持严格洗手、不摸脸、保持社交距离这些行为来阻止病毒的蔓延。

en-us	And we need better information about the performance of these tests — including any new tests that are introduced — in the real world. 
zh-cn	我们还需要更好地了解这些检测——包括所有新引入的检测——在现实世界的表现。 

en-us	Even as better tests emerge, we should always put the test result in the context of the other information we have. 
zh-cn	即便出现了更好的检测办法，我们也要始终将检测结果与掌握的其他信息联系到一起。

en-us	It’s a lesson that endures throughout medicine: Look at the big picture, not a single piece of data. 
zh-cn	这是贯穿医学始终的一课：从大局出发，而不只看单一的数据。

en-us	Triangulate on the truth, using all the sources of information you have, no matter how good a single test. 
zh-cn	不管某一次检测结果有多好，也要利用你掌握的所有信息来源，对真相进行三角测算。

en-us	And don’t be shy about questioning a conclusion that doesn’t fully fit the facts.
zh-cn	面对与事实不完全相符的结论，要敢于去质疑。