近日，美国一名医生遇到了一桩糟心事。本想多买些口罩，竟然经历了电影大片中的情景：先被联邦调查局（FBI）盯上，后来又被国土安全部拦截……

网友气愤地留言，在美国买个口罩搞得像毒品交易一样，真是奇耻大辱！

参与这场交易的安德鲁·阿滕斯坦博士，对美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）诉苦：这就是目前美国医疗系统的现状。

阿滕斯坦直言，我的职业生涯中，从未遇到过这样的事，尤其是事关口罩这种相对无害的物品。

1

口罩供不应求

就怕物资被半路“劫道”

据BuzzFeed报道，美国各地的医院仍旧忙于解决个人防护装备短缺的问题，各州也在争抢物资。阿滕斯坦曾在一篇发表于《新英格兰医学杂志》的文章中提到，他的团队几周前极度迫切地寻找医用口罩及N95口罩。

As hospitals across the country continue to deal with shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and states compete for supplies, Artenstein described his team's particularly desperate quest a couple weeks ago to obtain face masks and N95 respirators in an article published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“有些供货链奇怪而复杂，还有许多涉及巨额资金。”他认为，从某种程度上讲，联邦政府出了高价，他们是被“压下去”了。

"some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money" that fell through after they were "outbid or outmuscled," in some cases, by the federal government…

最终，阿滕斯坦联系到一批口罩，尽管定价是平时的5倍，但在医院亟需防疫物资的情况下，他们也顾不得那么多。

于是，阿滕斯坦团队前往交易地点验货。

我们必须对口罩进行适合性检验，确保它与脸部密合。

Actually you had to fit test them to assure that the seal on the face.

阿滕斯坦表示，验货是他们自己提出的，看似有些过度紧张，不过就近期美国物资紧张的情况来看，他甚至想到过这批物资被中途“劫道”的可能性。

但我们甚至想到了，一定要确保这些物资运回麻省，就怕它们会在半道上被劫走。由此可见，目前许多医疗系统和医院正面临的处境。

But the fact that we even thought about being able to get this equipment back to Massachusetts and the concern that it could've been redirected at any point along the way just shows you the situation I think that many health systems and hospitals are in.

仓库里的物资

就在这时，阿滕斯坦发现，“事情开始变得离奇，甚至可以说更离奇了……”

Here's where things get weird...even weirder.

2

被FBI盯上？

不只我们这一家

阿滕斯坦的团队与供应商接洽的地点在一间工业仓库。有两辆被标记为餐饮运输车的半挂卡车正等着装载货物。之后，两辆卡车将沿着两条不同的路线返回北方，“以减少货物被扣留或被重新寄送的可能性”。

……to meet the supplier at an industrial warehouse. There, two semi-trucks marked as food-service vehicles waited to be loaded before heading back north on two different routes "to minimize the chances that their contents would be detained or redirected."

尽管交易地点如此隐蔽，运货卡车还被“伪装”成餐饮运输车……他们的交易还是被FBI盯上了。

就在验完货准备交钱时，两名FBI探员出现了，并开始审问阿滕斯坦。

But before they could send the payment for the supplies by wire transfer, two FBI agents showed up and started questioning Artenstein.

FBI探员告诉阿滕斯坦，不只他们被监控。

Our understanding is that they told us this wasn't just us.

这是一场涉及全美的行动。

近期，一些报道称，部分口罩被卖给经销商并被运到非医疗场所，针对此事，联邦调查局向全国各地派了多路人马去查访。

They were fanning out teams across various parts of the United States in response to some reports apparently that some of this material was going to resellers and to places other than hospitals.

于是，阿滕斯坦向探员们出示了他的证件，并保证，这些面罩是送往医院的，不是送往黑市出售的。

After showing the agents his credentials and reassuring them that the masks were going to hospitals and weren't meant for the black market, Artenstein said the officials allowed them to proceed and load the PPE into the trucks.

对此，FBI在一则声明中解释称，由于特朗普总统签署了一项禁止囤积医疗用品的行政命令，该机构一直在调查个人防护装备的分布运输情况，以确保这些装备没有被非法出售或是囤积。

In a statement provided to BuzzFeed News, the FBI said that as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump prohibiting the hoarding of medical supplies, the agency has been investigating the distribution of PPE to ensure it is not being illegally sold or hoarded.

阿滕斯坦向CNN主持人坦言：“在我的职业生涯中，这太不寻常了，我从未遇到过这样的事，尤其是事关口罩这种相对无害的物品。”

…it is distinctively unusual in my experience in the profession to ever have anything like that happened, especially with something as relative benign as masks.

3

国土安全部介入：考虑扣押物资

更令人咋舌的是，刚被FBI放走，阿滕斯坦的物资又遭到了国土安全部的拦截。

阿滕斯坦得知国土安全部正在考虑扣押这批货物，并将这些个人防护装备转移到其他地方。于是，他的团队给他们在国会的代表、众议员理查德·尼尔打电话求助。

But then Artenstein said he learned that the Department of Homeland Security was considering seizing the shipment and directing the PPE elsewhere. So his team called their representative in Congress, Rep. Richard Neal, who he said intervened to prevent the federal government from derailing in the deal.

最终，在一系列电话斡旋后，这批物资得到“释放”。

周二，尼尔在一份声明中表示：“国土安全部、卫生与公众服务部的代表们非常合作，他们意识到这批货物的重要性，也意识到把它们送到医院的紧迫性。在与他们进行了一系列电话沟通后，这些医疗设备获释了。

“After a series of calls with very cooperative representatives from DHS and HHS, who recognized the importance of the shipment and the urgency to get it to the hospital, the PPE was released," Neal said in a statement emailed to BuzzFeed News Tuesday.

CNN主持人坦言，在听完阿滕斯坦的讲述后，“工业仓库”、“两辆被伪装成食品配送车的半挂卡车”、“联邦调查局”、“国土安全部”这些词，简直让她想到了美剧《黑钱胜地》。

I read your story and I hear "industrial warehouse", "two semis that are mislabeled as food distribution trucks", "the FBI", "the Department of Homeland Security". I don't know if you're a fan of the Netflix show "Ozark", but that's what it sort of called to mind for me.

网友更是忍不住吐槽称：买个口罩都被FBI监控，这就是美国天天说的自由

购买个人防护装备搞得像毒品交易。真是奇耻大辱。

FBI如何得知有这笔交易？除非他们在监控着每一个美国人。真是搞砸了。

太疯狂了。我确信FBI肯定还有更值得做的事儿。

当你的政府像恶棍一样，一切行为都会变成黑手党的风格。

还有中国留学生秀了一把优越

与此同时，每一个中国在美留学生都能收到一包口罩，还有药品和洗手液……都是免费的。为什么不能从官方渠道公开从中国购买呢？

4

重启经济？难题已迎刃而解？

这想法是错误的！

虽然最终阿滕斯坦将这批口罩拿到了手，但他表示，这也只能维持一段时间。

这些口罩够我们用一段时间，但是长期来看依然不够。因为我们收治了很多病患，他们需要医护人员的照料。我们必须保证口罩全新，能起作用。

That'll be enough to sustain us for the short run, not for the long run though. Because there's a lot of patients, and there is a lot of care that goes on, and you need to keep these masks fresh and ensure that they're doing the job.

目前来看，他所在的医院，新冠肺炎病例数量看似趋于稳定，而且政府官员正在讨论重新开放部分经济领域的计划，但他认为，获取充足的个人防护装备依旧是一个持续存在的问题。

Artenstein said that while the number of COVID-19 cases in Baystate's hospitals appears to have plateaued and as government officials talk about plans to begin reopening parts of the economy, obtaining adequate PPE is an ongoing problem.

他对CNN主持人坦言，现在是前所未有的非常时期，美国的医疗系统几乎都面临类似的处境。

说实话，这是前所未有的非常时期。我们必须竭尽所能，保护正在照料病患的团队成员，这是我们的责任。我想其他医院或医疗系统也是如此。

And to be totally honest with you, this is unprecedented unusual times. And we have to do what we need to do to protect our team members who are caring for these patients. That's our obligation, and I think we're no different than other hospitals or health systems.

他担心，“如果认为我们的这些难题已经迎刃而解，这是错误的。我可以告诉你们，这些挑战每天都在继续，而且我不认为只有我们如此。如果仅仅是我们这样，那我们就能通过正常的渠道得到获取医疗设备。”

"It would be improper to think that we have completely resolved these challenges because I can tell you on a daily basis they still continue, and I don't think we're alone in that," he said. "If we were alone, we would be able to get these things ... [and] go through our usual channels."