VOA慢速英语2021 新冠病毒是否会不断涌现新变种？

New variants² of the coronavirus can keep appearing as long as the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic keeps infecting people. But that does not mean they will be more dangerous.

只要导致新冠肺炎大流行的病毒不断感染人们，新冠病毒的新变种就会不断出现。但是这并不意味着它们会变得更加危险。

With more than half of the world still not vaccinated³, the virus will likely keep finding people to infect. It will then create copies of itself for several months or years to come. And each time a virus makes a copy of itself, a small mutation⁴ could happen. Those changes could help the virus survive and become new variants.

由于全球仍有一半以上人口未接种疫苗，这种病毒可能会继续寻找人们去感染。然后它会在之后的几个月或几年内造出自己的复制品。每次病毒自我复制时，都可能会发生突变。这种突变可以帮助病毒存活并成为新的变种。

Andrew Read is a virus expert at Pennsylvania State University. He said when a virus infects a new body, it needs to change itself to agree with the body so it can spread more widely.

安德鲁·雷德是宾夕法尼亚州立大学的病毒专家。他表示，当病毒感染一个新的身体时，它需要改造自己以适应这个身体，这样它才能更广泛传播。

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the Delta⁵ variant¹ can spread two times faster than earlier versions of the virus.

美国疾控预防中心发现，德尔塔变种的传播速度比初期版本的病毒要快两倍。

Dr. Adam Lauring is a virus and infectious disease expert at the University of Michigan. He said while the virus could still mutate to become more infectious, it probably would not double the rate it can spread again. Lauring added, "there is not an infinite number of things it can do."

亚当·劳林博士是密歇根大学的病毒和传染病专家。他说，虽然病毒仍然可能变异，变得更具传染性，但是它的传播速度可能不会再次翻倍。劳林表示：“它能做的事情并非无限的。”

It is possible that the virus could become deadlier. But experts believe it is not likely to happen. Extremely sick people are also less likely to socialize and spread the virus to others.

这种病毒可能会变得更加致命。但是专家表示这不太可能发生。重症患者也更不可能与人交际并将病毒传播给他人。

Experts are now watching to see if new variants could be better at avoiding the protection people gain from vaccination⁶ and infections.

专家们现在正在观察新变种是否可以更好地避开人们从疫苗接种和感染中获得的保护。

Dr. Joshua Schiffer is a virus expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He said as more people get the shots, the virus would have to spread through people who have some defense⁷ against the virus, or immunity⁸, for it to survive.

约书亚·希弗博士是华盛顿州西雅图市弗雷德·哈钦森癌症研究中心的病毒专家。他说，随着越来越多人接种疫苗，病毒必须通过对其有一定防护或免疫力的人群传播才能生存下去。

"The virus could take on a mutation that makes the immune response less effective," he said.

他说：“病毒可能会发生突变，使免疫反应没那么有效。”

If that happens, scientists may suggest that vaccines⁹ be changed with new information to fight appearing variants. It would be like how shots for the flu, another virus, are changed every year.

如果发生这种情况，科学家可能会建议采用新的信息改造疫苗，以对抗新出现的变种。这就像针对流感病毒的疫苗每年都在变化一样。

1 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

2 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

3 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

4 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

5 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

6 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。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

9 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。