New research suggests the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech can still work against a mutated coronavirus. Two easier-to-spread new variants of the virus have the world on edge. One was first discovered in Britain and South Africa.
新的研究表明，由輝瑞和BioNTech生產的COVID-19疫苗仍然可以抵抗變異的冠狀病毒。該病毒的兩個易於傳播的新變種使世界處於邊緣。一個是在英國和南非首次發現的。
Two major variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have emerged in recent weeks, raising questions about their contagiousness and accuracy of testing – but neither is more dangerous than the virus that has circulated for the last year, experts say, and available vaccines should remain effective.
導致COVID-19的病毒有兩個主要變體，最近幾周出現，引發了有關它們的傳染性和測試準確性的問題-但專家們說，這兩個變異體都不比去年流行的病毒更危險，應該使用疫苗保持有效。
COVID-19 testing labs across the U.S. should be monitoring samples for mutated variants of the virus, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday. There is a chance the mutations will cause some tests to return false-negative results,the agency warned, though it's unlikely most tests will miss people who are contagious.
美國食品和藥物管理局周五說，美國各地的COVID-19測試實驗室應監控樣本中病毒的變異體。突變有可能導致某些測試返回假陰性結果，該機構警告說，儘管大多數測試不太可能會錯過具有傳染性的人。
"The FDA believes the risk that these mutations will impact overall testing accuracy is low," according to the statement.
「美國食品藥物管理局認為，這些突變會影響整體的測試精度低，風險」，根據該聲明。
In more than a year of circulation, the virus has mutated many times, but only these most two recent variants – one that appeared first in the United Kingdom and the other in South Africa – seem to make a substantial difference in its function.
在傳播了一年多的時間裡，該病毒已經變異了許多次，但只有最近的這兩種變體（一種在英國首先出現，另一種在南非出現）似乎在功能上有很大的不同。
Only the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, has been detected in the U.S., currently in eight states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While it may spread more easily and quickly than other variants, the agency says there is no evidence it makes people sicker or increases risk of death.
根據美國疾病控制和預防中心的數據，在美國，目前僅在八個州發現了僅英國變種，稱為B.1.1.7 。該機構表示，儘管它比其他變體更容易，更迅速地傳播，但沒有證據表明它會使人患病或增加死亡風險。
A more contagious coronavirus strain? Here's what we know.
更具傳染性的冠狀病毒株？ 這就是我們所知道的。
But unlike the U.K., the U.S. doesn't have a coordinated effort to track changes to the virus. And if these variants are making the virus more contagious, it increases the stakes for getting people vaccinated as quickly as possible.
但是與英國不同，美國沒有協同努力來追蹤病毒的變化。而且，如果這些變種使該病毒更具傳染性，那麼它將增加使人們儘快接種疫苗的風險。
"It's really a race between the virus and the vaccine," said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at Yale University. "We have to really ramp up the vaccine distribution and rollout."
耶魯大學免疫生物學家巖崎明子說：「這實際上是病毒和疫苗之間的競爭。」 「我們必須真正增加疫苗的分發和推廣。」
About 70% of the doses that have been distributed nationwide so far are still sitting on pharmacy shelves, according to federal data, because of challenges in getting shots into arms.
根據聯邦數據，到目前為止，在全國範圍內分發的大約70％的劑量仍坐在藥房貨架上，原因是在向武器開槍方面存在挑戰。
Viral mutations cause concerns because they can make tests, treatments and vaccines ineffective, and change the properties of a disease, making it more or less transmissible and dangerous.
病毒突變會引起人們的關注，因為它們會使測試，治療和疫苗無效，並改變疾病的性質，使其或多或少具有傳染性和危險性。
The new variants appear to be pushing out older ones, raising worries about whether the changes will affect the course of disease or efforts to rein it in. So far, though, the new variants do not seem to be a cause for huge concern.
新的變種似乎正在淘汰舊的變種，引起人們對這些變化是否會影響疾病進程或控制疾病進程的擔憂。儘管如此，到目前為止，新的變種似乎並未引起人們的極大關注。
The two authorized vaccines and others under development are expected to continue to be effective against the two variants, which have spread to at least 33 countries, experts say.
專家說，預計這兩種授權疫苗和其他正在開發中的疫苗將繼續有效對抗這兩種變異，目前已傳播到至少33個國家。
Pfizer-BioNTech, the team making one of the authorized vaccines, released findings late Thursday showing that blood from people who have been vaccinated can effectively neutralize the mutated variants.
製作授權疫苗之一的輝瑞公司（Ffizer-BioNTech）在周四晚間發布了調查結果，結果表明，接種疫苗的人的血液可以有效地中和突變的變體。
In another study published this week, led by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle but also not yet peer reviewed, scientists found the blood of people who recovered from COVID-19 was able to completely vanquish the British variant. That suggests it won't pose a problem for people who have been vaccinated or already recovered from COVID-19.
在本周發表的另一項研究中，由西雅圖的弗雷德·哈欽森癌症研究中心的研究人員領導，但尚未經過同行評審，科學家們發現，從COVID-19中恢復的人的血液能夠完全徵服英國的變種。這表明對於已經接種疫苗或已經從COVID-19中康復的人們來說，這不會造成問題。
The South African variant was less well-controlled, the researchers found, but Jesse Bloom, the senior author, said on Twitter he's not yet concerned about vaccines losing effectiveness.
研究人員發現，南非變種的控制力較差，但資深作者傑西·布魯姆（Jesse Bloom）在Twitter上表示，他仍不擔心疫苗會失去效力。
"I am optimistic that current vaccines will remain quite useful," he wrote, adding he is eager to get the vaccine himself. "However, I do expect that as SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, eventually, it may be necessary to update vaccines."
他寫道：「我對當前的疫苗仍將非常有用感到樂觀。」他補充說，他渴望自己購買疫苗。「但是，我確實希望隨著SARS-CoV-2的不斷發展，最終可能需要更新疫苗。」
Concerns now may be 'overblown'
現在的擔憂可能「誇大了」
Susan Weiss, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said it's too early to worry about either variant. "I just feel like it's way overblown," she said of public concerns.
賓夕法尼亞大學的微生物學家蘇珊·韋斯（Susan Weiss）表示，現在擔心這兩種變異還為時過早。她談到公眾關注時說：「我只是覺得這太誇張了。」
There are 30,000 spots in the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that could be mutated, Weiss said, so even the 23 mutations found in one of the new variants make only a tiny difference in the virus that causes COVID-19.
魏斯說，SARS-CoV-2病毒的基因組中有30,000個斑點可以突變，因此，即使在一個新變種中發現的23個突變，在引起COVID-19的病毒中也只有很小的差別。
Mutations are simply what happens when a virus uses host cells to make copies of itself. Copying errors can occur with each replication, and they are more likely to take place with RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which don't have mechanisms to correct these genetic spelling mistakes.
變異就是病毒使用宿主細胞複製自身時發生的事情。複製錯誤可能會在每次複製中發生，並且它們更可能發生在SARS-CoV-2等RNA病毒中，後者沒有糾正這些遺傳拼寫錯誤的機制。
The family of viruses to which SARS-CoV-2 belongs, called coronaviruses, mutate far less often than viruses like the flu, where new vaccines are needed every year, or HIV, which has so far been impossible to vaccinate against.
SARS-CoV-2屬於的冠狀病毒家族，其病毒突變的頻率遠低於每年需要新疫苗的流感病毒或迄今仍無法接種的HIV等。
Weiss said she's not even convinced yet that these variants are more transmissible. Most of the studies conducted so far have focused on the epidemiology of the variant, finding that the British one is more transmissible because it now causes more infections than earlier strains.
魏斯說，她甚至還不相信這些變體更容易傳播。迄今為止進行的大多數研究都集中在該變種的流行病學上，發現英國變種更易傳播，因為與以前的菌株相比，它現在引起更多的感染。
But there are other explanations for why it could be winning out, including human behavior, she said. If people with the British variant visited family for Christmas, for example, that version might have spread faster.
她說，但是還有其他原因解釋了為什麼它會成功，包括人類行為。例如，如果具有英國變體的人到聖誕節過家，該版本的傳播速度可能會更快。
"Separating out changes in behavior from changes in the virus seems to be kind of difficult," Weiss said. "Everyone seems to accept that it's spreading faster but I don't know that that's necessarily correct."
韋斯說：「將行為的變化與病毒的變化區分開來似乎有點困難。」 「每個人似乎都接受它的傳播速度更快，但我不知道那一定是正確的。」
New strains leave 'less room for error'
新菌株使「錯誤餘地減少」
Essential aspects of the virus remain unchanged, despite the mutations, said Stephen Morse, who studies emerging infectious diseases at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
哥倫比亞大學梅爾曼公共衛生學院研究新型傳染病的史蒂芬·莫爾斯說，儘管發生了突變，該病毒的基本方面仍保持不變。
"The physical properties of the virus haven't changed," he said. Its size is the same, as is its ability to be killed with detergents and disinfectants.
他說：「病毒的物理特性沒有改變。」 它的大小是一樣的，也可以用洗滌劑和消毒劑殺死。
"So, the precautions we've been using up until now are going to work as well as they have up until now," Morse said. "The thing is we're obviously going to have much less room for error."
莫爾斯說：「所以，到目前為止，我們一直在使用的預防措施將奏效。」 「問題是我們顯然將有更少的錯誤餘地。」
Unfortunately, those precautions haven't worked very well in the U.S. and elsewhere, largely because people have not been willing or able to wear masks without fail and avoid others, particularly indoors. More than 4,000 Americans died Thursday of COVID-19, and nearly 275,000 additional people were diagnosed, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
不幸的是，這些預防措施在美國和其他地方並沒有取得很好的效果，主要是因為人們不願意或沒有能力戴口罩而無法避免並避免其他人，特別是在室內。根據《今日美國報》對約翰·霍普金斯大學（Johns Hopkins University）數據的分析，有超過4,000名美國人在周四死於COVID-19，並另外診斷出近275,000人。
In SARS-CoV-2, mutations may particularly arise in people who lack the ability to fight it off, said Iwasaki from Yale. Inside the body of someone who's immune system struggles to contain the virus, it has an opportunity to mutate around the person's weak defenses, she said.
耶魯大學的Iwasaki說，在SARS-CoV-2中，突變可能特別是在缺乏抵抗力的人中出現。她說，在一個免疫系統難以控制的人的體內，它有機會在該人脆弱的防禦系統周圍發生變異。
They may then pass the mutated version onto someone else. The more the virus spreads, particularly among immunocompromised people, the more likely mutations will appear.
然後，他們可以將變異版本傳遞給其他人。病毒傳播越多，尤其是在免疫功能低下的人群中，出現突變的可能性就越大。
One way to prevent this, Iwasaki said, is to provide people with COVID who already are immunocompromised – perhaps because of an organ transplant, cancer or autoimmune disease – with a cocktail of antibodies to help them fight off the virus.
Iwasaki說，一種防止這種情況的方法是為已經免疫受損的COVID患者（可能是由於器官移植，癌症或自身免疫性疾病）提供一系列抗體，以幫助他們抵抗病毒。
The FDA has authorized the use of two antibodies, one of which, from Regeneron, includes two monoclonal antibodies. "We should be giving them monoclonal cocktails," she said. "The more the merrier."
FDA已授權使用兩種抗體，其中一種來自Regeneron，包括兩種單克隆抗體。她說：「我們應該給他們單克隆雞尾酒。」 「多多益善。」
Better tracking, more action needed
更好地跟蹤，需要採取更多的行動
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, an epidemiologist at Columbia, said his main fear about the variants is they will render monoclonal antibodies ineffective.
哥倫比亞大學的流行病學家W. Ian Lipkin博士說，他對這種變異的主要擔心是它們會使單克隆抗體失效。
Unlike vaccines, which target large areas of the virus' "spike" protein, monoclonal antibodies are directed at one precise spot on the virus. If that spot is changed through mutation, an antibody directed against it might not work, Lipkin said.
與針對大面積病毒「刺突」蛋白的疫苗不同，單克隆抗體針對的是病毒上的一個精確點。利普金說，如果通過突變改變該斑點，針對該斑點的抗體可能無效。
"The monoclonal antibodies, their days are numbered," he said.
他說：「單克隆抗體的時代已經編號。」
It remains difficult to study variants and their dangerousness, said Iwasaki. The gold standard test, as Pfizer-BioNTech did, is to see whether the blood of vaccinated people can neutralize the virus. But it's not easy for scientists like herself to obtain blood and viral samples.
巖崎說，研究變體及其危險仍然很困難。輝瑞-BioNTech公司所做的金標準測試是觀察接種疫苗的人的血液是否可以中和該病毒。但是，對於像她這樣的科學家來說，獲取血液和病毒樣本並不容易。
She thinks the federal government should have created a centralized effort to follow changes in the virus by collecting and testing samples, either within government agencies like the CDC, or among international scientists. "I haven't seen any organized effort at this point," Iwasaki said.
她認為，聯邦政府應該在CDC之類的政府機構內或在國際科學家中，通過收集和測試樣本來做出集中努力，以追蹤病毒的變化。巖崎說：「到目前為止，我還沒有看到任何有組織的努力。」
Preventing the spread of the virus, including its new variants, will require more aggressive actions, such as careful mask wearing, avoiding contact with others indoors, and speeding up the process of getting people vaccinated, Iwasaki said.
巖崎說，要防止這種病毒的傳播，包括其新的變種在內，將需要採取更具侵略性的行動，例如戴好口罩，避免與室內其他人接觸以及加快為人們接種疫苗的過程。
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