2020年经济学人 新冠疫苗—艰难与困苦(1)（在线收听）

What do a malaria drug, a Russian vaccine and the blood plasma of people who have recovered from covid-19 have in common?

抗疟疾药物、俄罗斯疫苗和新冠康复患者的血浆之间有什么共同之处？

All have been approved for use by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic,

上述这些都被政府批准使用以应对新冠疫情，

with little or no scientific substance to back those decisions up.

且都几乎没有科学依据来支持这些决定。

On March 28th, near the pandemic's beginning, America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

3月28日，疫情开始之前，美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）

issued emergency-use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine,

批准了羟基氯喹的紧急使用授权，

an established but not risk-free antimalarial medicine which was controversially being proposed by some people,

这是一种得到认可但存在风险的抗疟疾药物，一些人提议使用该药物作为一种治疗新冠的潜在药物，

including Donald Trump, the country's president, as a possible covid treatment.

其中就包括该国总统唐纳德·特朗普

It did so, the authorisation stated, based on "limited in vitro and anecdotal clinical data".

授权声明称，它是基于“有限的体外和传闻临床数据”而批准使用的。

On August 11th Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump's Russian counterpart,

8月11日，俄罗斯领导人弗拉基米尔·普京表示

said his government was the world's first to approve a coronavirus vaccine, despite a lack of proper tests.

尽管缺乏适当的测试，但他的政府是世界首个批准新冠疫苗的国家。

And on August 23rd Mr Trump announced approval of the use of convalescent plasma therapy to treat covid-19.

8月23日，特朗普宣布批准使用恢复期血浆疗法治疗新冠。

He described it as a "very historic breakthrough" on the basis of a study the statistics of which the head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, got publicly and spectacularly wrong.

他称这是一个基于一项研究的“非常具有历史意义的突破”，FDA局长史蒂芬·哈恩公开了这项研究的数据，这些数据错得离谱。

That regulators move fast in emergencies is to be applauded.

监管机构在紧急情况下的快速行动值得称赞。

But these three examples have raised worries that sometimes they are moving too fast, and possibly for the wrong reasons.

但以上三种情况引发担忧：他们有时行动太快，而且可能出发点是错误的。

In one instance, indeed, things have gone full circle. Hydroxychloroquine's approval was rescinded on June 15th,

确实，在上述一种情况中，事情已经回到了原点。羟基氯喹的批准在6月15日被撤销，

after a series of well-conducted trials showed that it had no effect on covid-19.

此前一系列良好的试验表明，它对新冠没有作用。

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.

令人担忧的是，另外两种方法可能被证明一样是徒劳——将注意力和精力从更有希望的途径上转移，或者更糟，造成实际的伤害。

The Russian announcement was of the development, by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, in Moscow, of Sputnik V.

俄罗斯宣布了由莫斯科加玛丽亚流行病学和微生物学研究所研发的 Sputnik V。

This involves two injections, three weeks apart. Each shot is of a harmless virus that has been modified

其中包含两次注射，间隔三周。每一针都是注射一种被修改过的无害病毒，

to express one of the proteins made by SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes covid-19.

它能够显现出一种由SARS-COV-2合成的蛋白质，而SARS-COV-2就是引起新冠肺炎的病毒。

This is a perfectly sensible approach. Unfortunately, Sputnik V has not yet been through the trials,

这是一种非常明智的做法。不幸的是，Sputnik V还没有通过试验，

normally involving many thousands of people, which would be needed to show that it works and is safe.

试验通常需要好几千人的参与，才能证明它的有效性和安全性。

In fact, it has been given to a mere 76 people, and no results from these tests

事实上，仅有76人参与了试验，并且这些测试的结果

(nor from any of the animal tests that the institute says it has run) have yet been published.

（还是该机构所说的动物测试的结果）都尚未发表。

Mr Putin has, in other words, simply redrawn the finishing line for making a vaccine, stepped over it, and declared victory.

换言之，普京只是重新划定了疫苗生产的终点线，跨过了这条线，宣布了胜利。