VOA慢速英语2020 出现无法解释疾病，新冠肺炎疫苗试验再次暂停（在线收听）

American drug maker Johnson & Johnson has suspended its Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial. The suspension came after a patient in the study had "unexplained illness."

美国制药商强生公司已经暂停其新冠疫苗的3期试验。这次暂停发生在一名受试者患上“无法解释的疾病”之后。

A month ago, British drug-maker AstraZeneca also temporarily stopped its vaccine trial after an "unexplained illness."

一个月前，英国制药商阿斯利康公司也在出现“无法解释的疾病”之后暂停了其疫苗试验。

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement Monday night that illnesses, accidents, and other bad results "are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies." And it said a group of independent safety experts, as well as its own scientists, are trying to learn the cause of the illness.

强生公司周一晚上在一份声明中表示，疾病、意外和其它不良结果均属于“任何临床研究、尤其是大型研究中的预期部分。”该公司表示，一群独立安全专家以及该公司的科学家正在试图了解这种疾病的成因。

The study halt was first reported by the medical news website Stat.

Stat医学新闻网站首先报道了这项研究的暂停。

Johnson & Johnson entered the third and final part, or phase, of vaccine testing on September 22. It was seeking 60,000 volunteers for its Phase 3 trial in the United States and other countries. Its vaccine candidate is a single injection treatment. The others are two shot treatments.

强生公司于9月22日进入了疫苗试验的第3阶段，也是最后阶段。该公司在美国等国家征求6万名志愿者进行3期试验。它的候选疫苗是单次注射。其它疫苗是两剂注射。

During Phase 3 trials, researchers look for any signs of possible side effects. The trials also judge effectiveness by studying who gets sick and who does not among patients taking part in them. People in one group get a shot of the experimental vaccine. People in another group receive an injection of an inactive substance.

研究人员在3期试验期间查找任何潜在副作用的迹象。这些试验还通过研究参与者是否生病来判断其有效性。一组受试者注射实验疫苗，另一组受试者注射一种非活性物质。

Mathai Mammen is head of drug research and development at Johnson & Johnson. He told an investors' meeting Tuesday that the company informed the independent safety experts about the illness on Sunday. The experts asked for more information and the company is gathering it, he said.

马泰·马门是强生公司药物研发部的负责人。他在周二的一次投资者会议上表示，该公司周日将这种疾病告知了独立安全专家。他说，专家们要求提供更多信息，该公司正在收集这些信息。

Mammen added that the company does not yet know if the ill person had been given the experimental vaccine or the inactive substance.

马门还说，该公司尚不清楚这位患病者是否已经被注射了实验疫苗或非活性物质。

Temporary stoppages of large medical studies are fairly common. Few are made public during the trials. The company noted that the suspension is voluntary; health officials did not order it.

大型医学研究中的试验暂停相当普遍。这种暂停在试验期间很少会公之于众。该公司指出，这次试验暂停是该公司自发进行，并非卫生官员下令这样做。

The World Health Organization said recently as much as 10 percent of the world's population may have been infected with COVID-19. And Johns Hopkins University reported that more than 1 million people have died from the virus.

世卫组织最近表示，全球多达10%的人口可能已经感染了新冠肺炎。约翰·霍普金斯大学报告说，已经有超过100万人死于这种病毒。

"Everybody is on the alert because of what happened with AstraZeneca," Dr. William Schaffner said in an email to Reuters news agency. He is a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee.

威廉·沙夫纳博士在给路透社的电子邮件中表示：“由于阿斯利康公司的经历，大家都处于高度戒备状态。”他是田纳西州范德比尔特大学医学院的传染病学教授。

Last month, AstraZeneca, working with the University of Oxford in Britain, temporarily stopped its Phase 3 trial. The company later said a woman in the study had developed inflammation in her spine. The trial has since restarted in Britain, Brazil, India, and South Africa. But it is still on hold in the U.S.

上个月，与英国牛津大学合作的阿斯利康公司暂停了其3期试验。该公司后来表示，该研究中的一名女性患上了脊椎炎。此后，该试验已经在英国、巴西、印度和南非重新启动。但它在美国仍然被搁置。

Other vaccine candidates that have entered Phase 3 trials include ones from Moderna and Pfizer working with Germany's BioNTech. China has at least three different vaccines in Phase 3 human trials and Russia has one.

其它进入3期试验的候选疫苗包括来自Moderna公司的疫苗，以及辉瑞公司同德国BioNTech联合开发的疫苗。中国至少有3种不同的疫苗进入3期人体试验，俄罗斯则有1种。

Late on Tuesday, drug-maker Eli Lilly announced that it has also temporarily stopped its COVID-linked antibody-drug trials for safety reasons. This treatment is similar to the combined antibody treatment from Regeneron given to U.S. President Donald Trump on October 2.

周二晚，制药商礼来公司宣布，出于安全原因，它也暂停了其新冠肺炎相关的抗体药物试验。这种疗法类似于10月2日再生元公司对美国总统川普采用的联合抗体疗法。