大家好，我是J2.
武漢肺炎持續延燒，提醒同學在密閉空間、長時間接觸人群時戴口罩，並勤
洗手物摸眼耳鼻。
藉由時事順便來認識一下兩個托福也很常見的字：epidemic 跟 pandemic
根據韋氏字典定義，epidemic是an outbreak of disease that spreads
quickly and affects many individuals at the same time, 就是流行
病。
流行病不一定是傳染病，例如水俁病是由於環境污染造成的地方性流行病。
pandemic字典的定義是：an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a
wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion
of the population指的是在廣大區域或全球都受到影響的大流行，歷史上
曾出現過的pandemic包含smallpox（天花）, 1918 influenza pandemic
(Spanish flu), Black Death(黑死病)。
至於這次的肺炎到底是epidemic還是pandemic呢？
New York Times 在2/2有一篇文章有寫到
原文請看https://reurl.cc/lLGL8l
"The Wuhan coronavirus spreading from China is now likely to
become a pandemic that circles the globe.”
還有
“A pandemic — an ongoing epidemic on two or more continents —
may well have global consequences…”
依照現在已至少23個國家都有確診的情況，可以算是pandemic了。
epidemic這個字托福也出現過喔！例如在講到Quaternary extinctions in
the New World的理論就提到過。先講一下背景，Quaternary extinctions
就是第四紀滅絕事件，或稱Post-Pleistocene extinctions(更新世末期滅
絕事件)，其實就是大量巨型動物群(megafauna)的滅絕事件, 還是不知道是
哪個滅絕事件嗎？就是長毛象、劍齒虎等在冰原歷險記卡通裡會看到的那些
動物的滅絕事件。
關於這次滅絕事件常見的三大理論有：人類過度打獵、氣候變遷，第三個就
是epidemics！
Some have suggested that New World animals might have been
decimated by diseases introduced from Asia during one of the later
intervals when the Bering land-bridge route that connected Asia
with America was open. （有點巧，也是從亞洲開始的...）Such
epidemics, however, usually do not cause species to become
extinct.
但是此理論不太合理的原因是 they decimate local populations over a
large area but generally leave small pockets of resistant
individuals who eventually reestablish the species. 還是有些有抵
抗力的可以存活。
*Bonus
文章最後送給同學實用武漢肺炎關鍵字列表
傳染性極強
the Wuhan coronavirus is highly transmissible
the pathogen is readily transmitted between humans
傳染病學模型估計病例應該有十萬或更多
various epidemiological models estimate that the real number of
cases is 100,000 or even more
潛伏期
the incubation period is estimated to be between 2 and 14 days
爆發
The 2003 outbreak of SARS