Few domestic industries have been as devastated by the flood of cheap Chinese imports as manufacturers of face masks, exam gloves and other disposable medical gear that protects health care workers from infectious pathogens.

在受到廉价中国进口商品冲击的国内产业中，口罩、医用手套和其他保护医护人员免受传染性病原体侵害的一次性医疗用品制造商的损失格外惨重。

The industry’s demise had calamitous consequences during the Covid pandemic, when Beijing halted exports and American hospital workers found themselves at the mercy of a deadly airborne virus that quickly filled the nation’s emergency rooms and morgues.

这一行业的衰落在新冠疫情期间带来了灾难性的后果，当时中国暂停出口此类商品，美国的医护人员面对致命的空气传播病毒束手无策，而这种病毒迅速让全国的急诊室和停尸房不堪重负。

But as President Trump unveiled his tariff regimen earlier this month, and Beijing retaliated with an 84 percent tax on American imports, the few remaining companies that make protective gear in the United States felt mostly unease.

但当特朗普总统本月早些时候公布其关税政策，而中国则以对美国产品征收84%的关税作为报复时，美国仅存几家防护装备制造公司的感受却主要是不安。

“I’m pretty freaked out,” said Lloyd Armbrust, the chief executive of Armbrust American, a pandemic-era startup that produces N95 respirator masks at a factory in Texas. “On one hand, this is the kind of medicine we need if we really are going to become independent of China. On the other hand, this is not responsible industrial policy.”

“我真的挺害怕的，”劳埃德·阿姆布鲁斯特说到，他是疫情期间创办的初创公司Armbrust American的首席执行官，该公司在得克萨斯州的一家工厂生产N95呼吸器口罩。“一方面，如果我们真的要摆脱对中国的依赖，这种‘猛药’是必须的；但另一方面，这并不是一种负责任的产业政策。”

The United States once dominated the field of personal protective equipment, or P.P.E. The virus-filtering N95 mask and the disposable nitrile glove are American inventions, but China now produces more than 90 percent of the medical gear worn by American health care workers.

美国曾一度在个人防护装备领域占据主导地位。具备病毒过滤功能的N95口罩和一次性丁腈手套都是美国的发明，但如今，美国医护人员所使用的医用防护装备超过90%由中国生产。

Despite bipartisan vows to end the nation’s dependency on foreign medical products — and to shore up the dozens of domestic manufacturers that sprang up during the pandemic — federal agencies have resumed their reliance on inexpensive Chinese imports. Industry experts say the country’s renewed dependence on imported medical products is especially concerning given an expanding measles outbreak, the threat of avian flu and a trade war with China that some worry could affect global supply chains.

尽管两党都曾誓言要结束美国对外国医用产品的依赖，并支持大流行期间涌现出来的几十家本土制造商，但各联邦机构如今又重新依赖起廉价的中国进口产品。业内专家表示，在麻疹疫情不断扩大的背景下，加上禽流感威胁以及与中国的贸易战可能影响全球供应链，美国再次依赖进口医用产品的局面尤其令人担忧。

“It’s the same movie again and again,” said Mike Bowen, whose company, Prestige Ameritech, was one of the few domestic mask makers before the pandemic, and who repeatedly warned Congress about the risks of relying on foreign-made P.P.E.

“这剧情我们已经看过太多次了，”迈克·鲍文说。他的公司Prestige Ameritech是疫情前为数不多的本土口罩制造商之一，曾多次警告国会依赖外国生产的个人防护装备所带来的风险。

Mr. Bowen, who retired four years ago but maintains a stake in Prestige Ameritech, said the rise and fall of the American P.P.E. sector over the past few years was entirely predictable. “We didn’t learn a thing,” he said.

鲍文在四年前退休，但仍持有该公司的股份。他表示，过去几年美国个人防护装备行业的兴衰完全是可以预见的。“我们一点教训都没吸取，”他说道。

Shocked by the images of nurses donning trash bags, John Bielamowicz, a commercial real estate broker in Texas, opened a N95 factory near Fort Worth with a friend, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on machinery that would eventually churn out 1.2 million masks a month.

看到护士们穿着垃圾袋的画面时，得克萨斯州的商业地产经纪人约翰·比拉莫维奇震惊了，他和朋友在沃斯堡附近开办了一家N95工厂，花费数十万美元购买机器，最终每月生产120万个口罩。

“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” said Mr. Bielamowicz, whose company, United States Mask, was one of more than 100 start-ups that sprung up during the first terrifying year of the pandemic.

“感觉这就是应该做的事，”比拉莫维奇说，他的公司United States Mask是疫情初期令人恐慌的一年里涌现出的100多家初创公司之一。

Five years later, United States Mask and most of the other start-ups are gone. The companies were hit hard by slowing demand for P.P.E. as the pandemic retreated and as masks became a symbol of government overreach and loss of freedom for many Americans. But the death blow was seemingly preordained: the return of Chinese-made gear.

五年后，美国口罩公司和其他大多数初创公司都已不复存在。随着大流行的消退，以及口罩成为政府越权和许多美国人认为的失去自由的象征，对个人防护装备的需求放缓，这些公司受到了沉重打击。但致命的一击似乎早已注定：中国制造的装备又回来了。

劳埃德·阿姆布鲁斯特在得克萨斯州普夫鲁格维尔的公司仓库里与他们生产的一些口罩合影。

Only five of the 107 companies created during the pandemic are still making masks and gloves, according to a review of the membership list created by the American Medical Manufacturers Association.

根据对美国医药制造商协会创建的会员名单的审查，在大流行期间创建的107家公司中，只有五家仍在生产口罩和手套。

Eric Axel, the association’s executive director, said the tariffs on Chinese-made protective gear, if they remained high, would give American producers a leg up. “I think it will change behavior, because people will have to adjust to the reality that you can’t buy below-market price rate stuff from China anymore,” he said.

该协会的执行董事埃里克·阿克塞尔说，如果对中国产防护装备的关税保持高位，将有助于美国制造商提升竞争力。“我认为这将改变市场行为，因为人们将不得不适应一个现实，那就是不再能从中国购买低于市场价的商品了，”他说。

But other industry executives worry the escalating retaliatory moves by the United States and China could lead to supply chain disruptions and a return of P.P.E. shortages. Many say the economic uncertainty prompted by Mr. Trump’s tariff rollout will chill new investment.

但其他行业高管担心，美国和中国之间日益升级的报复性举措可能会导致供应链中断，并让个人防护装备短缺问题卷土重来。许多人表示，特朗普总统的关税政策引发的经济不确定性将会抑制新的投资。

“It’s difficult to make business decisions when policies change every four years, and now every couple of days,” said Scott McGurl, a health care industry expert at the consultancy firm Grant Thornton.

“政策每四年改变一次，就已经很难做出商业决策了，而现在是每隔几天就变一次，”咨询公司Grant Thornton的医疗行业专家斯科特·麦克格尔说道。

The silver-lining story about how altruistic entrepreneurialism rallied to meet a grave public health emergency wasn’t supposed to end this way.

关于利他主义创业精神如何汇聚力量应对严峻公共卫生危机的励志故事，不该以这种方式结束。

Political leaders from both sides of the aisle had vowed to never again to allow the nation to become reliant on foreign-made medical gear, and the Defense Department spent $1.3 billion helping American companies make N95 respirator masks and nitrile exam gloves in the United States.

两党政治领导人曾誓言再也不让国家依赖外国制造的医用防护装备，国防部也花费了13亿美元帮助美国公司在国内生产N95口罩和丁腈医用手套。

In 2021, Congress drafted legislation to ensure that federal agencies prioritized the purchase of domestically made medical equipment to sustain the sector through the inevitable peaks and troughs of demand.

2021年，国会草拟了法案，确保联邦机构优先采购本土制造的医疗设备，以保障该行业度过不可避免的需求波动。

It is a model long embraced by the Pentagon, which spends hundreds of billions of dollars each year on contracts that sustain defense-related companies during times of war and peace.

这是五角大楼长期采用的一种模式，他们每年花费数千亿美元签订合同，在战争与和平时期维持国防相关公司的运转

But the P.P.E. measure, folded into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, contained loopholes that experts say rendered it ineffective as federal agencies sought waivers to buy less expensive imports.

但这些最终并入到2021年《基础设施投资与就业法案》的个人防护装备措施存在漏洞，专家表示，联邦机构为了购买价格较低的进口产品而寻求豁免，导致相关措施形同虚设。

Mr. Trump has not mentioned personal protective equipment since returning to office, but during his first term he often spoke about the need to wean the country off foreign-made medical gear as part of his “America first” economic policy.

自上任以来，特朗普从未提及个人防护装备，但在第一个任期内，他经常谈到有必要让国家摆脱外国制造的医疗装备，这是他“美国优先”经济政策的一部分。

“Never again will another president inherit empty shelves,” he said in May 2020, speaking at a Pennsylvania mask facility operated by Owens & Minor. “My goal is to produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world.”

“再也不会有其他总统继承空荡荡的货架了，”他2020年5月在位于宾夕法尼亚州的Owens & Minor口罩厂发表讲话时说道。“我的目标是让美国生产我们自己需要的一切，然后再出口到全世界。”

2020年，洛杉矶国际机场的地勤人员从一架南方航空货机上卸下医用个人防护装备的托盘。

Experts say the tariffs that Mr. Trump imposed on Chinese goods during his first term did little to level the playing field, mostly because Beijing’s generous industrial policy helped Chinese companies maintain their price advantage.

专家表示，特朗普在第一任期内对中国商品征收的关税几乎没起到什么促进公平竞争的作用，主要是因为北京慷慨的工业政策帮助中国公司保持了价格优势。

The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment.

特朗普政府没有回应置评请求。

For now, the vast majority of masks purchased by hospital chains, federal agencies and state governments are imported, mostly from China, and to a lesser extent, from Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico — countries that often repackage Chinese-made products to avoid the tariffs that were imposed on Beijing by the last two administrations.

目前，连锁医院、联邦机构和州政府购买的绝大多数口罩都是进口的，主要来自中国，此外还有泰国、越南和墨西哥——这些国家通常将中国产的产品重新包装，以规避过去两届政府对中国征收的关税。

Owens & Minor, the health care logistics company that Mr. Trump singled out for praise during the pandemic, sells masks that are assembled in Mexico. The company declined to discuss its production.

特朗普在疫情期间特别表扬的医疗物流公司Owens & Minor销售的是在墨西哥组装的口罩。该公司拒绝讨论其生产情况。

There are a few exceptions to the narrative. SafeSource Direct, one of the few companies that makes nitrile exam gloves in the United States, has been surviving, largely because of a partnership with the hospital network Ochsner Health, which buys a steady stream of them, according to Justin Hollingsworth, the chief executive of SafeSource Direct. Ochsner said its investment in SafeSource was intended to ensure its hospitals and clinics have a reliable source of medical supplies.

但也有少数例外。SafeSource Direct是美国为数不多的几家生产丁腈医用手套的公司之一，其首席执行官贾斯汀·霍林斯沃思表示，公司之所以能够生存下来，主要是因为与医院网络Ochsner Health建立了合作关系，后者源源不断地购买这些手套。Ochsner表示，对SafeSource的投资旨在确保其医院和诊所拥有可靠的医疗用品来源。

Armbrust American, the other pandemic-era startup still in business, gets by on purchases from travelers who don’t trust Chinese-made masks, and on bulk purchases by the retailer Target. Mr. Armbrust said Target executives were willing to pay 50 percent more for his masks and gloves because they saw the value in having a high-quality product made on U.S. soil.

另一家疫情期间创建、至今仍在运营的初创公司Armbrust American靠的是不信任中国产口罩的旅行者，以及零售商塔吉特的大宗采购。其首席执行官阿姆布鲁斯特表示，塔吉特高层愿意用高出50%的价格来购买他的口罩和手套，因为他们看到了在美国本土生产的高质量产品的价值。