美国国家公共电台 NPR 英国成为首个批准新冠疫苗的西方国家(在线收听

This is Weekend Edition from NPR News, I'm Debbie Elliott.

这是NPR新闻周末版节目,我是黛比·埃利奥特。

It feels like a light at the end of the tunnel in the U.K. A COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use there, and many will receive it as early as this week. The U.K. is the first Western country to license a vaccine. But lots of questions, both moral and logistical, remain about the distribution. Sarah Boseley is the health editor for The Guardian. We've reached her in London. Welcome.

英国似乎已看到了隧道尽头的灯光。英国已批准紧急使用一款新冠肺炎疫苗,许多英国民众最早将于本周进行接种。英国是首个批准疫苗的西方国家。但是,道德和后勤保障方面仍然存在许多问题。莎拉·博斯利是《卫报》的健康编辑。她将从伦敦和我们连线。欢迎你。

SARAH BOSELEY: Very pleased to be with you.

莎拉·博斯利:很高兴和你连线。

ELLIOTT: So what is the latest on plans for the rollout in the U.K.?

埃利奥特:英国推出的最新计划是什么?

BOSELEY: Well, it's really exciting because the deliveries to hospitals around the U.K. are going to happen tomorrow, Monday. And they are saying that the very first vaccinations will take place on Tuesday. So we're really almost there.

博斯利:这令人相当兴奋,因为疫苗将于明天分发到英国各地的医院。首批疫苗接种将在周二进行。马上就要开始了。

ELLIOTT: Remind us, if you would, which vaccine we're talking about here because there are several in the works at the moment.

埃利奥特:请提醒一下我们,我们谈论的是哪款疫苗?因为目前有多款疫苗正在准备阶段。

BOSELEY: Yes, indeed. This is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is made with a novel technology called messenger RNA. So this is very much brand-new. It's the same as the Moderna technology that's coming along behind and that — we have another one in process, as well, from Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

博斯利:对,没错。这是辉瑞和德国生物技术公司合作研发的疫苗,由名为信使核糖核酸的新技术制成。所以这是全新的技术。与莫德纳公司后来使用的现代技术一样,牛津大学和阿斯利康联合开发的疫苗也在进行测试。

ELLIOTT: Are there any challenges that come with the Pfizer vaccine?

埃利奥特:辉瑞疫苗有什么挑战吗?

BOSELEY: Yes, this is actually logistically the most difficult of the three that we're looking at because it has to be kept at —70 centigrade. Now, that is deep, deep frozen. And it also comes in boxes of multi-vials. So there's something like five doses to each vial, and each box has 975 doses. Now, because they're kept in this deep-frozen state, they then have to be very, very carefully split up. And that is the bit, actually, that hasn't yet been properly figured out.

博斯利:有,从后勤方面来说,这款疫苗实际上是上述三个疫苗中最难处理的一个,因为它必须在零下70摄氏度的环境中保存。这相当于深度冷冻。而且该疫苗要储存在由多个小瓶组成的箱子里。基本上每个小瓶中有5剂疫苗,每箱有975剂。因为疫苗需要保存在深度冷冻状态下,所以在分离时必须非常谨慎小心。事实上,这一点尚未完全弄清楚。

ELLIOTT: So just like in the U.S., the tough question is about distribution. Who is getting this first? You say care homes are in line. That's like the nursing homes here in the U.S. How has the U.K. tackled the matter of who comes first?

埃利奥特:这和美国一样,最棘手的问题是分发。谁会先接种疫苗?你刚提到疗养院在优先接种名单上。疗养院就相当于美国的养老院,英国如何解决谁先接种的问题?

BOSELEY: Well, we have an expert committee that's decided this. They're known as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. They are very independent, but they're an advisory body to the government. So their advice is being taken everywhere. And the No. 1 priority is care home, nursing home residents — also those staff who work in them, for obvious reasons. And the No. 2 is everybody over the age of 80, plus health care workers. After that, it's the over-75s. And then it goes down in descending age order, except quite high up there are people who have underlying serious health conditions.

博斯利:英国由专家委员会来做出决定。这个委员会名为疫苗接种和免疫接种联合委员会。这是极为独立的委员会,但同时也是政府的咨询机构。各处都会采纳委员会的建议。疗养院居民以及疗养院工作人员是优先接种人群,原因很明显。排在第二位的是80岁以上人群以及医护人员。之后是75岁以上人群。按年龄降序依次排序,有潜在严重健康问题者可优先接种。

ELLIOTT: How is it that the U.K. was able to get approval for the vaccine so quickly ahead of countries like the U.S.?

埃利奥特:为什么英国获得疫苗批准的时间比美国等国早这么多?

BOSELEY: The main difference, actually, with the United States is that the FDA in the United States actually demands all the raw details. So that's all the data that there are — the raw data, I should say, from those trials. And then they do their own statistical analysis. So they do not depend on the company summaries. They're not taking what the companies say as necessarily accurate. So they will do their own data analysis and hopefully come up with exactly the same results. And also, you have an independent committee that's going to review the technologies because these are new technologies. So I think you're going to get a result fairly soon. But it's just that bit behind us. Now, our regulator is saying terrific, but you really don't need all of that. It's very hard for us to know whether that's so or not. But actually, if you think about it, the regulatory approval probably is going to take maybe a week longer in the States. It may not be much more than that.

博斯利:英国与美国的主要区别在于,美国食品药品监督管理局(简称FDA)要求提交所有原始细节。也就是试验的全部原始数据。之后,该机构自行进行统计分析。他们不依赖于制药公司的总结。他们并不认为公司公开的信息一定是准确的。因此,他们会自己做数据分析,希望得出完全相同的结果。另外,美国也有独立委员会对技术进行审查,因为这些都是新技术。所以我想美国很快就会得出结果。不过时间比我们晚一些。英国监管机构说很好,但并不需要这一切步骤。我们很难知道是不是这样。但事实上,仔细想一下,美国监管部门的批准可能需要一周时间。甚至可能需要更长时间。

ELLIOTT: Sarah Boseley is the health editor for The Guardian. Thank you so much for being with us.

埃利奥特:萨拉·博斯利是《卫报》的健康编辑。非常谢谢你和我们连线。

BOSELEY: It's a great pleasure. Thank you.

博斯利:不客气。谢谢。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/npr2020/12/518179.html