又中又英｜Hard to swallow

A friend sent me a WhatsApp news article a few days ago which said the Covid XBB variant is spreading very fast in Singapore and had reached Japan. I feared Hong Kong would be next. I was gullible to fall for it even though my common sense told me news of XBB spreading in Singapore was hard to swallow. The friend who sent me the news article also fell for it. To be gullible means to be too willing to believe everything others tell you. To fall for something means to be tricked into believing something that is not true. The expression “hard to swallow” used this way means difficult to believe.
An XBB pandemic in Singapore was hard to swallow because there have been no other media reports of it except for the article my friend sent me. The new and efficient Pfizer XBB.1.5 vaccine also became available in Singapore last month. I read the article again and quickly realized it was fake news that circulated last year. The news didn’t make sense because it said XBB.1.5 doesn’t cause Covid symptoms. There is so much fake news on social media nowadays that, as a journalist, I always research things that are hard to believe.
I believed in the article at first because it worried me. I had planned to take the XBB.1.5 Pfizer vaccine in the US but it only became available in mid-September, two days after I left for Hong Kong. The vaccine is still not available in Hong Kong even though it is already available in Singapore and Japan. It seems Hong Kong is always falling behind nowadays.

几天前有一位朋友传给我一篇WhatsApp新闻报道，说新冠病毒XBB变种株，于新加坡传播得非常急速，还传到了日本。我害怕香港将会成为下一个感染地区。我实在很易受骗（gullible），信而为真（fall for it），虽然我的常识告诉我，XBB在新加坡肆虐的新闻难以令人置信（hard to swallow）。那位传报道文章给我的朋友同样信以为真（fell for it）。To be gullible是指太容易受骗，别人说甚么就信甚么。To fall for something是指很容易上当，对某事信以为真。习语“hard to swallow”在这里是指难以相信的事情。
XBB疫情肆虐新加坡这一消息并不足信（hard to swallow），因为除了我朋友传给我的文章，便再没有其他传媒的任何相关报道了。而且，新而有效的辉瑞XBB.1.5疫苗上个月亦已在新加坡推出。我再读那篇报道，很快便意识到那是一则上年便流传的假新闻。那则新闻并不合理，因为它说 XBB.1.5并不会引起新冠病毒的徵状。今时今日，在社交媒体上实在有太多的假新闻，而我身为新闻工作者，对于难以置信的资讯我总会做调查。
我起初相信文章所说的，因为那实在使我担心。我本来计划在美国接种XBB.1.5辉瑞疫苗，但它要到九月中才供货，刚刚在我回港的两天之后。香港还没有这个疫苗，虽然它已经在新加坡和日本面市。看来，香港现今总是瞠乎其后。

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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻