美国国家公共电台 NPR 随着奥密克戎变种的传播，儿童住院数量增加

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's official. The FDA has authorized¹ booster shots for kids aged² 12 to 15. This comes amid a significant rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations among children. Overall, the U.S. is averaging between 300- and 400,000 new cases of the coronavirus every day. We'll talk to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy about the recent surge in a moment. But first, NPR's Allison Aubrey joins us. Allison, good morning.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE³: Good morning, Rachel.

MARTIN: So this was in the ether. Now it's official - the FDA authorizing⁴ this expansion of boosters. What more can you tell us about this?

AUBREY: Sure. Well, the agency has authorized the use of the Pfizer booster in kids 12 to 15 years old, as you just said. They've made a few other changes, too, including the timeline for booster eligibility⁵. Instead of needing to wait six months after the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine⁶, people will be eligible⁷ for a booster at five months. And one more thing, Rachel - the FDA will allow for a third dose of vaccine in immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11 years old. All of this comes, as you just pointed⁸ out, amid this boost in omicron cases, and it's becoming more clear that booster shots can help protect people against serious illness and hospitalizations.

MARTIN: So let's talk about that. I mean, we're seeing a record number of cases now, but where are hospitalizations exactly?

AUBREY: You know, hospital admissions are not rising as quickly as cases. They're rising, just not as quickly. Cases are up by about 200%; hospitalizations are up by about 30%. And some areas are being hit particularly hard. If you look at New Jersey⁹, they're seeing record numbers of hospitalizations. In Ohio, the governor has called for the deployment¹⁰ of National Guard members to assist hospitals there. In Houston, the head of Houston Methodist Hospital, Dr. Marc Boom, described to me exactly what he's seeing among the people being admitted to the ICU there amid this surge.

MARC BOOM: There's really two kinds of patients who are getting really sick and going to our ICU. One is the immunocompromised patient, the very people we've been trying to protect and who we know don't mount good antibody responses; the other are unvaccinated. And we're really not seeing healthy, younger people who are vaccinated¹¹ end up to our ICU.

MARTIN: So by extension, that means the vaccines¹² are working, right?

AUBREY: Absolutely. He says those who are vaccinated do far better, and those who are boosted are even less likely to be admitted. You know, the big challenge right now, Rachel, is that it has never been harder to avoid exposure to this virus. It is everywhere. Omicron is just so contagious¹³. So Dr. Boom says the sheer number of cases just can't be underestimated. His hospital is now seeing about 60% of their COVID tests come back positive.

BOOM: That's a mind-boggling number. So exactly what we were afraid of a couple weeks ago is starting to happen, and that's that although fewer people get admitted, so many people are getting sick. That is now creating very large numbers of admissions. On the flip¹⁴ side of that, then, we are seeing record numbers of staff get sick.

AUBREY: Now, they have nearly every staff member vaccinated because they mandated¹⁵ it early on, so fortunately, he said, there has not been a single staff member to be hospitalized. But these staff members do need to stay home for five days, per the isolation¹⁶ policy, and this can create staffing challenges.

MARTIN: Let's talk about kids, Allison. Are hospitals reporting a rise in pediatric cases right now?

AUBREY: You know, right now cases among kids are going up significantly. I mean, in the week leading up to Christmas, 200,000 kids tested positive. Now there's an uptick in hospitalizations. I spoke¹⁷ to David Kimberlin. He directs the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham about these hospitalizations.

DAVID KIMBERLIN: We have seen about a 50% increase over the last couple of weeks in pediatric hospitalizations around the country. But our overall numbers compared with prior waves, at least so far, are lower. So it's a mixed story right now, but I think it's going to be bad over these next four to six weeks.

AUBREY: And the best way to think about this, Rachel - I really want to underscore this point here - he says even if most kids just get mild illness, with this huge spike¹⁸ in cases you just need a small fraction, you know, who get seriously ill, and that's enough to put stress on hospitals, where resources are clearly stretched so thin. You heard Dr. Kimberlin say there he thinks January is going to be bad, but the hope is then that the surge will begin to recede¹⁹, similar to what's happening in South Africa.

MARTIN: So schools are supposed to be back in session, Allison, after the holidays. What...

AUBREY: Exactly, except for a snowstorm here in the D.C. area.

MARTIN: Right, yeah. Snowstorm in D.C. is delaying that. But what are schools doing right now in terms of weighing whether or not to close again?

AUBREY: You know, I think there's a real scramble²⁰ to increase testing, to reinforce masking rules. I know we got a message from our daughter's elementary school explaining how to opt²¹ in to a testing program. And Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC yesterday that kids who are vaccinated are much more protected.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANTHONY FAUCI: I plead with parents to please seriously consider vaccinating²² your children, wearing masks in the school setting, doing tests to stay - all of those things put together, it's safe enough to get those kids back to school.

AUBREY: He says the benefits really do outweigh²³ the risks of kids missing out on in-person instruction.

MARTIN: NPR's Allison Aubrey. Thank you.

AUBREY: Thank you, Rachel.

1 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 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。

4 authorizing   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Letters of Marque: Take letters from a warning friendly power authorizing privateering. 私掠许可证：从某一个国家获得合法抢劫的证书。
• Formal phavee completion does not include authorizing the subsequent phavee. 阶段的正式完成不包括核准随后的阶段。

5 eligibility   

n.合格，资格

参考例句：

• What are the eligibility requirements? 病人被选参加试验的要求是什么？ 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望
• Eligibility for HINARI access is based on gross national income (GNI). 进入HINARI获取计划是依据国民总收入来评定的。

6 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。

7 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

11 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？

12 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。

13 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。

14 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

15 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

16 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

17 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

18 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

19 recede   

vi.退(去)，渐渐远去；向后倾斜，缩进

参考例句：

• The colleges would recede in importance.大学的重要性会降低。
• He saw that the dirty water had begun to recede.他发现那污浊的水开始往下退了。

20 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

21 opt   

vi.选择，决定做某事

参考例句：

• They opt for more holiday instead of more pay.他们选择了延长假期而不是增加工资。
• Will individual schools be given the right to opt out of the local school authority?各个学校可能有权选择退出地方教育局吗？

22 vaccinating   

给…接种疫苗( vaccinate的现在分词 )； 注射疫苗，接种疫苗

参考例句：

• At first blush, vaccinating the wolves against rabies seems a simple solution. 乍一看来，为狼群注射防狂犬病疫苗是一种简单的办法。
• Also vaccinating children against misers (measles) has saved many lives. 还有，给儿童进行疫苗接种防止麻疹也挽救了许多生命。

23 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。