VOA慢速英语2021 美国食品和药品管理局称强生公司的单针疫苗安全有效（在线收听）

The United States Food and Drug Administration says Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine is safe and protects against severe COVID-19 disease.

美国食品和药品管理局表示，强生公司的单次注射疫苗很安全，可以预防严重的新冠肺炎疾病。

The agency released documents Wednesday in preparation for a meeting Friday to decide if it will approve the vaccine for emergency use.

该机构周三发布了文件，为周五决定是否批准该疫苗用于紧急用途的会议做好准备。

The Johnson & Johnson, or J&J, large Phase 3 trials involved almost 44,000 volunteers. The vaccine appeared to work best in the United States with an efficacy rate of 72 percent. In Brazil the rate was 68 percent. And in South Africa, where a fast-spreading coronavirus variant was first identified last October, the rate was 64 percent effective. That is up from the 57 percent reported earlier by the drug maker.

强生公司的大型3期试验涉及了近4.4万名志愿者。该疫苗在美国似乎效果很好，有效率为72%。在巴西的有效率为68%。南非去年10月首次发现了一种快速传播的新冠病毒变种，该疫苗在这里的有效率为64%。这比这家制药商早些时候报告的57%要高。

The FDA also examined the vaccine in connection with coronavirus variants, especially those found in Brazil and South Africa. The independent scientists found that 28 days after vaccination the efficacy rate increases to as high as 87 percent.

美国食品和药品管理局还审查了与新冠病毒变体有关的疫苗，特别是巴西和南非发现的那些病毒变种。独立科学家们发现，在疫苗接种28天之后，有效率提高到了87%。

Volunteers in the trial reported only minor side effects from the shots such as pain, fever and headache. By early February, there was no COVID-related deaths in the group of volunteers receiving the vaccine. There were seven deaths in the study group that received a placebo, a shot filled with an inactive substance.

该试验中涉及的志愿者报告称，接种疫苗后仅有轻微的副作用，例如疼痛、发烧和头痛。截至2月初，接种疫苗的志愿者中没有发生与新冠肺炎相关的死亡。接受安慰剂的研究组中有7人死亡，安慰剂是一种非活性物质。

The J&J vaccine can be stored at normal refrigeration temperature easing distribution operations. The two-shot vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, already approved for emergency use, require extreme cold storage.

强生公司的疫苗可以在正常的冷藏温度下保存，从而简化了配送操作。辉瑞和德国生物新技术公司联合开发的注射两针的疫苗已获准用于紧急用途，这种疫苗需要极低温冷藏。

J&J told Congress at Tuesday’s hearing that it expected to provide 20 million shots by the end of March and 100 million by summer. Worldwide, the company said it aims to produce around one billion vaccines by the end of the year.

强生公司在周二的听证会上对国会表示，该公司预计在3月底可以提供2000万剂疫苗，到夏天可以提供1亿剂疫苗。该公司称其在全球范围内的目标是在今年年底前生产约10亿剂疫苗。

In other vaccine news, Ghana received the first transport of coronavirus vaccine from the United Nations-backed COVAX program on Wednesday.

在其它疫苗新闻方面，加纳周三从联合国支持的新冠肺炎疫苗实施计划中接收了首批配送的新冠病毒疫苗。

The organization said it shipped 600,000 treatments of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the African country. It expects to send some to the Ivory Coast later this week. And COVAX hopes to provide at least 2 billion shots to other poor countries.

世卫组织表示，它向该非洲国家运送了60万剂由牛津大学和阿斯利康公司联合开发的疫苗。该组织预计本周晚些时候运送一批疫苗到科特迪瓦。新冠肺炎疫苗实施计划希望为贫穷国家至少提供20亿剂疫苗。