Translating to help counterparts elsewhere fight the pandemic

Some medical students in Shanghai recently formed a team to provide subtitles to the video of a conference on first-hand experience about treating novel coronavirus patients. The idea was to share clinical findings by medical workers who treated novel coronavirus patients on the front line with overseas medical workers.

In the past two months, Chinese medical workers have stopped the spread of the novel coronavirus, by curing thousands of patients. They wanted to share the experience with their counterparts in other countries, but the plan hit a language barrier. However, students from the School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who have a medical background, access to frontline clinical experience and the advantage of knowing two languages, are now translating the medical information.

With the help of their seniors and translators, the students recently gave subtitles, in English and French, to a video clip of a medical conference, held on March 16, on “Severe COVID-19: Frontline ICU Experience from Wuhan & Shanghai”. Within two days of the release of the video, reports said it had registered 10,000 clicks overseas, earning wide praise from medical workers in Luxembourg, the United States and Turkey.

The students next plan to translate data on how China’s medical workers protected themselves from infection while treating novel coronavirus patients.

Such efforts underline the essence of the global fight against the novel coronavirus: join hands to fight the virus and overcome difficulties. After all, the novel coronavirus is a common enemy of all the people. It is high time the world realized the importance of solidarity. The Chinese people are willing to help other countries conquer this virus soon.

— WANG YIQING, CHINA DAILY