美国国家公共电台 NPR Did Pox Virus Research Put Potential Profits Ahead of Public Safety?

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

There was an uproar¹ in biology recently when scientists announced they'd used bits of DNA² to manufacture a pox virus. Critics said the work is dangerous. Research teams had essentially³ published a recipe that could help terrorists brew⁴ up deadly smallpox⁵. So why synthesize a pox virus in the first place? NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce has this report.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE⁶: Smallpox is special. It's the only human disease ever wiped off the face of the planet by a global vaccination⁷ campaign. The contagious⁸, often deadly virus is now supposed to exist only in two secure labs. This is why some biosecurity experts were taken aback when scientists recently synthesized a pox virus, manufacturing it from made-to-order pieces of DNA. It was not smallpox. It was a related virus, horse pox - but still. Tom Inglesby is director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health.

TOM INGLESBY: Anything that lowers the bar for creating smallpox in the world is a dangerous path.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Exactly how much this lowers the bar depends on who you ask. This isn't the first virus ever made from scratch. And some say the pox virus-making methods published last month are no huge technical advance. But Drew Endy disagrees.

DREW ENDY: I think it's incorrect to assert that it's a nothing burger.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He's an expert on synthetic⁹ biology at Stanford University who serves on a World Health Organization committee that oversees¹⁰ research on smallpox.

ENDY: There are things in this paper that I wouldn't know how to do and had never been done before.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: So why do it?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DAVID EVANS: Why on earth did you want to try and make a horse pox virus?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's the guy whose lab made it, David Evans at the University of Alberta, speaking at a recent conference. He said horse pox is extinct in nature. But some evidence suggested the virus might be useful as a safer smallpox vaccine¹¹. And the government still stockpiles vaccine in case of a bioterror attack.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

EVANS: So we were wondering if we could find out more about this virus. But the challenge is that there was one stock of it, which was unobtainable.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: One specimen¹² that was unobtainable, unavailable for investigation¹³.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

EVANS: And so we thought, well, could we have a stab at trying to make that?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But why was the one specimen of natural horse pox virus off limits? It's held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Evans told me he contacted the CDC. But he said once it became clear that he was working with a company, and there was a commercial interest in the virus, there were problems.

EVANS: I didn't want to sort of push my connections and try and get the virus if it was going to cause some difficulty. So we realized that it was probably not accessible that way.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: When I called the CDC, however, that agency said it often works with companies that are developing new tests, treatments and vaccines¹⁴. It says back in 2014, they told Evans what paperwork he'd need to do to get the virus. Evans replied that he was working with a company that would probably be the ones to follow up. But no one followed up. The CDC says they heard nothing back. So I asked Evans, why did you not pursue this? He said the CDC would've given him the virus, but he had concerns about its uncertain past. It was collected from a sick Mongolian horse in the 1970s. He says that meant some long-forgotten restriction¹⁵ on sharing might pop up later and foil efforts to commercialize the virus as a vaccine.

Evans says he thought he discussed this with a company that paid him to synthesize the virus. But its CEO told me no. In fact, back then, the company had no idea the CDC sample existed. And if they'd known it was potentially available, that would've been preferable to setting out on a virus-making project. So the natural virus was available. The company would have been interested. But nonetheless, the virus got made from scratch. And Evans says it will truly revolutionize his field.

EVANS: You know, someone had to bite the bullet and do this. But now that I've done it, my colleagues in this field can go forward and do their experiments, right?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says labs like his could design made-to-order pox viruses to fight diseases like cancer. But others say, wait. It's not just scientists who are affected¹⁶ by this. Anything that would make it easier for someone with bad intentions to make smallpox could potentially impact all the people of the world. David Relman is a microbiologist at Stanford University.

DAVID RELMAN: We shouldn't be leaving individuals to make these decisions on their own, which is essentially what we did here.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says researchers have known for years that someone could theoretically make a pox virus from scratch. He thinks there should've been a much broader public debate before someone actually did it.

Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

1 uproar   

n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸

参考例句：

• She could hear the uproar in the room.她能听见房间里的吵闹声。
• His remarks threw the audience into an uproar.他的讲话使听众沸腾起来。

2 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 brew   

v.酿造，调制

参考例句：

• Let's brew up some more tea.咱们沏些茶吧。
• The policeman dispelled the crowd lest they should brew trouble.警察驱散人群，因恐他们酿祸。

5 smallpox   

n.天花

参考例句：

• In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of smallpox.1742年，他染上了致命的天花。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child?你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

8 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

9 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

10 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

11 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

12 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

14 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

15 restriction   

n.限制，约束

参考例句：

• The park is open to the public without restriction.这个公园对公众开放，没有任何限制。
• The 30 mph speed restriction applies in all built-up areas.每小时限速30英里适用于所有建筑物聚集区。

16 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。