VOA慢速英语--辉瑞公司称新冠口服药对奥密克戎变体有效

Pfizer Says Pill Works Well Against Omicron Variant¹

American drug maker² Pfizer said Tuesday that its experimental pill to treat COVID-19 appears to work well against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The company said its study of 2,250 people found the drug reduced hospitalizations and deaths by nearly 90 percent among high-risk adults. The full results came from those who took the pill within three to five days of showing COVID-19 symptoms.

In laboratory testing, Pfizer said the drug also produced good results against the Omicron variant. Pfizer tested the antiviral pill against a man-made version of an important protein that Omicron uses to reproduce itself.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide soon whether to approve Pfizer's pill and another one from Merck for treatment. After strong early results, Merck said last month that its pill only reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 30 percent.

Currently approved treatments require injections from healthcare professionals. But a pill can be taken at home and is easier to send around the world.

Testing among lower-risk adults

Pfizer said it is also testing its pill among healthier adults, including some who are vaccinated³.

Partial results showed the pill did not reduce symptoms of COVID-19 for four days during or after treatment. However, the company said the pill did reduce hospitalizations among healthy but unvaccinated adults by about 70 percent. A group of independent medical experts reviewed the data and advised Pfizer to continue the study to get the full results.

Rochelle Walensky is the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She told an NBC television news program that the best protection against COVID-19 is still vaccination⁴ followed by an additional shot called a booster.

Vaccine⁵ against Omicron

In the United States, nearly 800,000 Americans have died during the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest increase in deaths came from the Delta⁶ variant. But the Omicron variant is spreading quickly in parts of the U.S. and around the world.

Omicron was first identified in South Africa and neighboring Botswana in November. The variant has now caused 90 percent of new infections in South Africa.

On Tuesday, the South African Medical Research Council and Discovery Health, a health insurance company, released their study of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine defense⁷ against Omicron.

The study showed people who received two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to have just 33 percent protection against infection, compared to those who were unvaccinated. The vaccine appeared to have much higher protection, about 80 percent, against infections from earlier variants⁸ like Delta.

However, the shots provided up to 70 percent protection against hospitalization. The study did not look at those with booster shots since they are not widely available in South Africa.

The study was based on examining more than 211,000 COVID-19 test results from Sept. 1 to Dec. 7 – a time of increasing Omicron infections in South Africa.

Dr. Michael Head is a Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton. He urged people not to give the study too much importance since it only covered a short period.

He told the Associated Press that international scientists are still studying Omicron and officials will need to consider that in decision-making.

Words in This Story

pill – n. a small, rounded object that you swallow and that contains medicine, vitamins, etc.

variant – n. something that is different in some way from others of the same kind

symptom – n. a change in the body or mind which indicates that a disease is present

insurance – n. an agreement in which a person makes regular payments to a company and the company promises to pay money if the person is injured or dies, or to pay money equal to the value of something (such as a house or car) if it is damaged, lost, or stolen

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 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

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 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。

5 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。

6 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。

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 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