奥巴马总统在埃博拉会议后发表的讲话

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Remarks by the President after Meeting on Ebola

欧巴马总统在埃博拉会议后发表讲话

Roosevelt Room

罗斯福厅

October 06, 2014

2014年10月6日

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  I just had an opportunity to get a full briefing from my entire team across administrations – across agencies on the aggressive steps that we are taking to fight the Ebola epidemic, to stop the epidemic at its source in West Africa but also to make sure that we are doing everything we need to do to prevent an outbreak here in the United States.

总统： 各位下午好。我刚才有机会听取了来自政府各方——各机构整个团队的全面汇报，介绍了我们正在大力采取的措施，旨在遏制埃博拉流行，在西非源头制止疾病传播，并确保采取一切必要措施，防止疫情在美国发生。

As I’ve said from the start of this outbreak, I consider this a top national security priority.  This is not just a matter of charity – although obviously the humanitarian toll in countries that are affected in West Africa is extraordinarily significant.  This is an issue about our safety.  It is also an issue with respect to the political stability and the economic stability in this region.

正如我在疫情刚爆发时所说，我视它为国家安全的一个首要事项。它所关系的不仅是慈善援助——虽然受影响的西非国家的人命损失非常严重。它是一个关系我们安全的问题。它也是一个与这一地区的政治稳定和经济稳定相关的问题。

And so it is very important for us to make sure that we are treating this the same way that we would treat any other significant national security threat.  And that’s why we’ve got an all-hands-on-deck approach – from DOD to public health to our development assistance, our science teams – everybody is putting in time and effort to make sure that we are addressing this as aggressively as possible.

I know that the American people are concerned about the possibility of an Ebola outbreak, and Ebola is a very serious disease.  And the ability of people who are infected who could carry that across borders is something that we have to take extremely seriously.  At the same time, it is important for Americans to know the facts, and that is that because of the measures that we’ve put in place, as well as our world-class health system and the nature of the Ebola virus itself – which is difficult to transmit – the chances of an Ebola outbreak in the United States is extremely low.

Procedures are now in place to rapidly evaluate anybody who might be showing symptoms.  We saw that with the response of the airplane in Newark and how several hospitals across the United States have been testing for possible cases.  In recent months we’ve had thousands of travelers arriving here from West Africa, and so far only one case of Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States, and that’s the patient in Dallas.  Our prayers are obviously with him and his family.

We have learned some lessons, though, in terms of what happened in Dallas.  We don’t have a lot of margin for error.  The procedures and protocols that are put in place must be followed.  One of the things that we discussed today was how we could make sure that we’re spreading the word across hospitals, clinics, any place where a patient might first come in contact with a medical worker to make sure that they know what to look out for, and they’re putting in place the protocols and following those protocols strictly.  And so we’re going to be reaching out not only to governors and mayors and public health officials in states all across the country, but we want to continue to figure out how we can get the word out everywhere so that everybody understands exactly what is needed to be done.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, we’re constantly reviewing and evaluating the measures that we already have in place to see if there are additional improvements.  We continue to look at any additional steps that can be taken to make sure that the American people are safe, which is our highest priority.

And finally, we had a discussion about what we’re doing on site in West Africa.  There’s been already extraordinary work done by the Department of Defense in conjunction with the CDC in standing up isolation units and hospital beds.  We are making progress.  The environment is difficult because the public health system there has very few resources and is already extraordinarily fragile.

最后，我们讨论了我们正在西非当地所进行的努力。国防部与疾病控制和预防中心一道，已经为设置隔离点和病床做卓越的工作。我们正在取得进展。那里的环境很困难，当地公共医疗体系的资源非常匮乏，原本就极其脆弱。

And I’ll be very honest with you – although we have seen great interest on the part of the international community, we have not seen other countries step up as aggressively as they need to.  And I said at the United Nations, and I will repeat, that this is an area where everybody has to chip in and everybody has to move quickly in order for us to get this under control.  Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the United States do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means that people die, and it also means that the potential spread of the disease beyond these areas in West Africa becomes more imminent.

我要非常坦诚地告诉各位——虽然我们看到国际社会表现出很大关注，但我们没有看到其他国家积极加强所需采取的步骤。我在联合国说过，我还要再说一遍，这是一个需要所有人都投入力量、所有人都迅速行动起来才能得到控制的问题。其他国家如果认为可以袖手旁观，仅仅让美国采取行动，那么就不会有应有的效率和应有的反应速度，它意味着人的死亡，也意味着这种疾病传播到西非以外地区的可能性更加逼近。

So I’m going to be putting a lot of pressure on my fellow heads of state and government around the world to make sure that they are doing everything that they can to join us in this effort.  We’ve got some small countries that are punching above their weight on this, but we’ve got some large countries that aren’t doing enough.  And we want to make sure that they understand that this is not a disease that’s going to discriminate, and this is something that all of us have to be involved in.

因此，我将向其他国家和政府首脑大量施加压力，要使他们尽一切可能，加入我们的努力。有些小国在这方面做出了超常的努力，而一些大国却没有充分给力。我们要让他们懂得，这种疾病不识疆界，这是一个需要我们全体都投入进来的问题。

So the bottom line is, is that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure, number one, that the American people are safe; I’m confident that we’re going to be able to do that.  But we’re also going to need to make sure that we stop this epidemic at its source.  And we’re profoundly grateful to all our personnel – our medical personnel, our development personnel, our military personnel who are serving in this effort.  It’s because of their professionalism, their dedication and their skill that we are going to be able to get this under control, but this is a faraway place, with roads that in many cases are impassable, areas that don’t have even one hospital.  We’re having to stand up, essentially, a public health infrastructure in many of these areas that haven't had it before, and that requires an enormous amount of effort.

总而言之，我们将尽我们的一切力量确保，第一，美国人民的安全；我对做到这点充满信心。但是，我们还需要确保在源头控制住这一流行疾病。对于所有投入这项努力的人——我们的医疗人员、我们的开发人员、我们的军事人员——我们深表感激；由于有他们的敬业精神、他们的奉献和他们的专业能力，我们将能够遏制疫情。但是，那是一个距离遥远、在很多情况下道路不通和常常根本没有医院的地区。在很多地方我们基本是在从头建立不曾有的公共卫生基础设施，而这需要付出极其巨大的努力。

I’m very grateful for the people who are on the front lines making this work.  It’s a reminder once again of American leadership.  But even with all the dedicated effort that our American personnel are putting in, there are going to be – they need to be joined by professionals from other countries who are putting up similar effort and similar resources.  And so I hope they’re going to be paying attention over the next several weeks so we can get on top of this.

我对在第一线为能够成就这一切而工作的人心怀深深的感激。它再次使人看到了美国的领导作用。但是，即使有美国人所做出的这一切兢兢业业的努力，他们也仍然需要有来自其他国家的专业工作者做出同样的努力，投入同样的资源。因此，我希望他们将在未来数周内给予关注，让我们能够控制疫情。

Thank you.

谢谢各位。

Q:  What do you say to the American people who remain nervous in spite of your assurances?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I just explained to them that the nature of this disease – the good news is, is that it’s not an airborne disease.  We are familiar with the protocols that are needed to isolate and greatly reduce the risks of anybody catching this disease, but it requires us to follow those protocols strictly, and that’s exactly what we are in the process of doing.  And the CDC is familiar with dealing with infectious diseases and viruses like this.  We know what has to be done and we’ve got the medical infrastructure to do it.  But this is an extraordinarily virulent disease when you don’t follow the protocols.

And so the key here is just to make sure that each step along the way – whether it’s a hospital admissions desk, whether it is the doctors, the nurses, public health officials – that everybody has the right information.  If they have the right information and they’re following those protocols, then this is something that we’re going to be able to make sure does not have the kind of impact here in the United States that a lot of people are worried about.  But that requires everybody to make sure that they stay informed.  Most particularly, we’ve got to make sure that our health workers are informed.

We’re also going to be working on protocols to do additional passenger screening, both at the source and here in the United States.  All of these things make me confident that here in the United States, at least, the chances of an outbreak, of an epidemic here are extraordinarily low.

But let’s keep in mind that, as we speak, there are children on the streets dying of this disease – thousands of them.  And so obviously my first job is to make sure that we’re taking care of the American people, but we have a larger role than that.  We also have an obligation to make sure that those children and their families are safe as well, because ultimately the best thing we can do for our public health is also to extend the kind of empathy, compassion and effort so that folks in those countries as well can be rid of this disease.

但是让我们记住，就在我们讲话的同时，街头的孩子正被疾病夺去生命——数以千计的孩子。所以，显然，我的首要工作是确保保护好美国人民，但是我们有比这更大的角色。我们也有责任确保那些儿童和他们家人的安全，因为归根结底，我们能够为公共健康做出的最有益贡献，是把同情、关爱与努力扩大开来，从而让那些国家的人们也能战胜这一疾病。

Thank you very much, everybody.

非常感谢各位。

Q:  Are you looking to the private sector –

问：你是否在考虑私营行业——

THE PRESIDENT:  A lot of volunteering.  Thank you, everybody.

总统：有许多志愿行动。谢谢各位。