大多数感染新冠肺炎的儿童很少出现或者完全没有通常的患病迹象。
Eight-year-old Brooklynn Chiles of Washington, D.C. is one such child. The young girl has tested positive for the virus three times. She is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. She has never shown serious signs of the disease.
华盛顿特区8岁的布鲁克林·奇利斯就是这种孩子。这位小女孩已经3次病毒检测呈阳性。她已经接种完成新冠病毒疫苗。她从未出现严重的患病迹象。
Today, doctors are trying to understand why she keeps getting infected.
如今，医生们正在试图了解她为什么不断被感染。
One time when she caught the virus, her father also got sick. He later died. Her mother, Danielle, is worried that Brooklyn could also get very sick the next time she catches the virus.
有一次当她感染病毒时，她的父亲也生病了。他后来去世了。她的母亲丹妮尔担心布鲁克林下次感染病毒时也会病得非常严重。
Chiles said she wonders if her daughter is going to die, too. "Is this the moment where I lose everyone?" she asked.
丹妮尔表示，她想知道她的女儿是否也会死。她问：“这一刻我会失去所有亲人吗？”
The COVID-19 pandemic started in late 2019. It is linked to more than 6 million deaths around the world. But its effects on children are not well known.
新冠大流行始于2019年末。它跟全球超过600万人的死亡有关。但是它对儿童的影响并不为人所知。
Over 12 million children in the U.S. are estimated to have tested positive for the virus. However, the virus does not seem to be as dangerous for children as it is for older adults.
据估计美国有超过1200万儿童病毒检测呈阳性。然而，这种病毒对儿童的危害似乎并不像对老年人那样危险。
Some people call what happens to children "bizarre." Some children suffer from what is known as "long COVID." Others get re-infected, like Brooklynn. Some even seem to get sick and then recover, only to have severe organ inflammation later on.
有人称孩子身上发生的事情非常离奇。一些孩子患有所谓的长期新冠肺炎。另一些人会重复感染，例如布鲁克林。有些人甚至患病然后康复，只是后来会出现严重的器官炎症。
At Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., Brooklynn and other children are subjects of a study. Doctors at the hospital are getting money from the National Institutes of Health to study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on children.
在华盛顿特区的美国国家儿童医院，布鲁克林和其他一些孩子成为了研究的对象。该医院的医生正在从美国国立卫生研究院获得资金，用于研究新冠肺炎对儿童的长期影响。
The hospital has about 200 children up to age 21 in the study, which will go on for three years. They undergo many tests on their first visit to the hospital. Doctors take blood, listen to their heart and check their lungs.
该医院大约有200名年龄最大21岁的儿童参与了这项研究，时间将会持续3年。他们在第一次去医院时接受了多种检查。医生们给他们抽血化验、听心脏，检查肺。
Roberta DeBiasi is the doctor leading the study. She said the researchers are trying to understand the problems children suffer after getting COVID, and how common they are.
罗伯塔·德比亚西是领导这项研究的医生。她说，研究人员正在试图了解儿童感染新冠肺炎后所面临的问题，以及这些问题的普遍程度。
Another girl in the study is Alyssa Carpenter. She is three years old. She had COVID-19 two times and also has unusual symptoms, such as high fevers and foot pain. Sometimes she lies down and points to her chest and says she has pain there, too.
研究中的另一位女孩是艾莉莎·卡彭特。她现年3岁。她曾经两次感染新冠肺炎，并出现了一些不寻常的症状，例如高烧和脚痛。有时候她躺下指着胸口说那里也疼。
Alyssa's parents, Tara and Tyson Carpenter, have two other daughters. They said the pandemic caused a lot of problems in their lives. But they are most worried about Alyssa whom they do not know how to help.
艾莉莎的父母塔拉和泰森还有两个女儿。他们表示，大流行给他们的生活带来了很多问题。但是他们最担心艾莉莎，不知道如何帮她。
Tara Carpenter called the situation "super frustrating." She said she has been looking for answers to her daughter's problems, but no one is able to provide them.
塔拉称这种状况令人非常沮丧。她说，她一直在寻找女儿所面临问题的答案，但是没有人能够解答。
Some days, the little girl is doing just fine. Other days, she has a fever or pain. But lately, the family says she is doing a little better.
有时候，这个小女孩过得很好。还有些时候，她会发烧或疼痛。但是最近，这家人说她的状况好多了。
One doctor working on the study is Linda Herbert. She does a psychological test. She talks to the children about things like the quality of their sleep, the worries they have, how they get along with other children and whether they have trouble remembering things.
琳达·赫伯特也是从事这项研究的一名医生。她做了一次心理测试。她跟孩子们探讨他们的睡眠质量、他们的担忧、他们与其他孩子如何相处，以及他们是否有记忆力不好等问题。
She said there are many symptoms, adding that many children are worried about getting sick again.
她说有很多症状，还说许多孩子都担心再次患病。
Herbert said psychological symptoms are just as common as physical symptoms, like pain. And it is not just the children who have a lot of worries. The parents, brothers and sisters of the children have stress and anxiety, too.
赫伯特表示，心理症状和疼痛之类的身体症状一样常见。而且，不止是孩子们有诸多烦恼。孩子的父母、兄弟姐妹也有压力和焦虑。
Brooklynn's mother, Danielle, is working hard to keep her emotions from affecting her daughter. She is working to support her family now that her husband died. She also is dealing with her sadness and trying not to show her feelings to her daughter.
布鲁克林的母亲丹妮尔正在努力避免自己的情绪影响到女儿。丈夫去世后，她正在努力养家糊口。她也在处理自己的悲伤，并尽量不对女儿表现出她的感受。
She wanted to put Brooklynn in the study so more people would learn about the need for vaccines, especially among Black people. Her husband Rodney was not vaccinated. He suffered from pre-existing conditions and died at the age of 42.
她想将布鲁克林纳入这次研究，以便让更多人了解接种疫苗的必要性，尤其是在黑人当中。她的丈夫没有接种疫苗。他患有既有疾病，去世时年仅42岁。
Chiles said one of the last things her husband said before he died was "forgive me."
丹妮尔表示，她丈夫生前说的最后一句话是“请原谅我。”
She said it is true that many children are not getting sick if they catch the virus. However, "they are losing," she said.
她说，许多孩子感染病毒后不会生病，这是事实。然而她说：“他们正在失去。”
"They're losing parents, social lives...years." Chiles said: "Yes, kids are resilient, but they can't go on like this. No one is this resilient."
丹妮尔表示：“他们正在失去父母、失去多年的社交生活。是的，孩子们有韧性，但是他们不能继续这样下去。没有人有这种韧性。”
I'm Dan Friedell.
我是丹·弗里德尔。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，请勿转载，违者必究！)