Around March 10 2020, I was puzzling over the strange new virus, when someone on Twitter posted an essay by a guy I’d never heard of: Tomas Pueyo, who works in tech in Silicon Valley. I read it twice. “The coronavirus is coming to you,” wrote Pueyo. “It’s coming at an exponential speed: gradually, and then suddenly . . . When it does, your healthcare system will be overwhelmed. Your fellow citizens will be treated in the hallways. Exhausted healthcare workers will break down. Some will die. They will have to decide which patient gets the oxygen and which one dies. The only way to prevent this is social distancing today.”
2020年3月10日左右，我正在琢磨這個奇怪的新病毒，這時Twitter上有人發佈了一篇文章，作者是一個我從未聽說過的人。托馬斯·普約(Tomas Pueyo)，他在矽谷從事技術工作。我讀了兩遍。「冠狀病毒正在向你走來，」普約寫道，「它正以指數級的速度到來：逐漸地，然後突然地......。 當它出現時，你們的醫療保健系統將不堪重負。你的同胞將在走廊裏接受治療。精疲力竭的醫護人員會崩潰。有些人將會死亡。他們將不得不決定哪個病人得到氧氣，哪個病人死亡。防止這種情況的唯一方法是現在保持社交距離。」