經濟學人｜科技Trials and tribulations

09.04｜經濟學人閱讀｜科技專欄 Trials and tribulations

經濟學人The Economist是一份英國的英文新聞周報，分八個版本於每周五向全球發行，編輯部位於倫敦，創辦於1843年9月。

經濟學人是一本綜合性新聞評論刊物，有商業、國家和地區、經濟和金融、科學和技術五大類。其中文章文風緊湊且嚴謹，對語言精準運用，展現出一種克制的風趣幽默，常運用雙關語調侃。

經濟學人對於英語考試的重要性不言而喻，其文章常常出現在雅思託福、SAT、GRE、GMAT、考研英語、四六級、MTI和CATTI的閱讀理解真題中。

今天羚羊君（公眾：aa-acad）給大家分享的是經濟學人2020年8月29日期刊中科技專欄的第二篇：Trials and tribulations？

這篇文章主要論述了新冠肺炎的治療。筆者對羥氯喹、俄羅斯疫苗和恢復性血漿療法都一一論述了其優缺點。

想要閱讀往期內容，可以在公眾號右下角點擊&34;進入專欄。

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Trials and tribulations

試驗與磨難

WHAT DO A malaria drug, a Russian vaccine and the blood plasma of people WHO have recovered from covid-19 have in common? All have been approved for use by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with little or no scientific substance to back those decisions up.

瘧疾藥物、俄羅斯疫苗和從新冠病毒中康復的人的血漿有何共同之處？所有這些都已被政府批准用於應對新冠病毒疫情，但幾乎沒有或根本沒有科學依據來支持這些決定。

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On March 28th, near the pandemic&39;s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency-use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine, an established but not risk-free antimalarial medicine which was controversially being proposed by some people, including Donald Trump, the country&34;limited in vitro and anecdotal clinical data&39;s Russian counterpart, said his government was the world&34;very historic breakthrough&34;有限的臨床數據&34;非常歷史性的突破&39;s approval was rescinded on June 15th, after a series of well-conducted trials showed that it had no effect on covid-19. The worry is that the other two approaches may prove similarly futile—diverting attention and effort from more promising avenues or, worse, causing actual harm.

監管機構在緊急情況下迅速採取行動值得稱讚。但是，這三個示例引起了人們的擔憂，即有時它們因為一些錯誤的原因，而反應得太快。確實，在某些情況下，事情已經過去了。一系列進行良好的試驗表明，羥氯喹對新冠病毒治療無效後，其批准令於6月15日被撤銷。令人擔憂的是，其他兩種方法同樣可能被證明是徒勞的：將注意力和精力轉移到更有希望的治療手段中，或者更糟的是造成實際傷害。

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04

The Russian announcement was of the development, by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, in Moscow, of Sputnik V. This involves two injections, three weeks apart (see chart). Each shot is of a harmless virus that has been modified to express one of the proteins made by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19. This is a perfectly sensible approach. Unfortunately, Sputnik V has not yet been through the trials, normally involving many thousands of people, which would be needed to show that it works and is safe. In fact, it has been given to a mere 76 people, and no results from these tests (nor from any of the animal tests that the institute says it has run) have yet been published. Mr Putin has, in other words, simply redrawn the finishing line for making a vaccine, stepped over it, and declared victory.

俄羅斯的聲明是由莫斯科的Gamaleya流行病學和微生物研究所開發的&34;疫苗。這種疫苗需要注射兩次，其中相隔三周（見圖表）。每個階段注射的都是一種無害的病毒，該病毒經過修飾，可以表達為SARS-CoV-2產生的一種蛋白質，因而可抑制新冠病毒。這是一種非常明智的方法。但不幸的是，&34;疫苗尚未經過試驗，試驗通常需要成千上萬的人參與，需要證明它是有效且安全的。實際上，它只提供給了76個人，並且尚未發布這些測試的結果（也沒有該研究所表示已進行的任何動物測試的結果）。換句話說，普京只是簡單地重新畫了生產疫苗的終點線，然後越過了它，並宣布獲勝。

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America&34;not conclusive&34;experimental therapy&34;尚無定論&34;實驗療法&34;if the data continue to pan out, [of] 100 people who are sick with covid-19, 35 would have been saved because of the administration of plasma&34;shockingly wrong&34;儘早使用恢復性血漿治療的好處&34;如果繼續提供數據可發現，100名新冠患者中，有35名使用血漿療法患者康復&34;驚人的錯誤"，實際數字是3.2。 此後，哈恩博士澄清說，他將死亡率相對降低（研究的兩個分支之間降低了35％）與絕對的降低風險相混淆。這是一個非常根本的錯誤。

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08

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong—a part of the world which looked as though it had SARS-CoV-2 under control—news has emerged of someone who, having had covid-19 once and recovered, has now been infected by a slightly different strain of the virus. Extrapolating from a single case is risky, but this one calls into question how long someone who recovers from infection retains immunity from re-infection. The answer is crucial to understanding how herd immunity to the virus develops in populations, and may also have implications for vaccine development. Doctors will now be looking hard for similar examples, so that such understanding can be improved.

同時，在香港（世界上似乎已控制新冠疫情的部分地區）的消息傳出，曾經有一個確證新冠肺炎後康復的人現在被另一種稍微不同的菌株病毒感染。從單個病例推斷是有風險的，但是這一點使人們感到疑問，感染後康復的人能否獲得免受再次感染的免疫力。答案對於了解人類對病毒的免疫力如何發展至關重要，並且也可能對疫苗的開發產生影響。現在，醫生將努力尋找類似的例子，以便可以增進這種理解。

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經濟學人一般目錄大綱：

· The world this week：簡單梳理本周的時事

· Leaders：社論，對本周熱點事件進行評論

· Briefing：簡報，對一個特定熱點話題深度討論

· Letter：讀者來信，對往期文章的評論

· Sections：各大洲及中美英三國的本周熱點事件報導

· Business：商業新聞

· Finances and economics：財經新聞

· Science and technology：科技新聞

· Books and arts：文化書籍，書評和文化現象討論

· Economic and financial indicators：商業及財經指數

· Buttonwood：金融專欄

· Schumpeter：商業專欄

· Bartleby：職場專欄

· Bagehot：英國專欄

· Charlemagne：歐洲專欄

· Lexington：美國專欄

· Banyan：亞洲專欄