人们更期待走出实验室的疫苗/文：张延友

今早阅读了有关疫苗的大马媒体报道：

据美国制药商进行的一项实验室研究显示，辉瑞公司和BioNTech的COVID-19疫苗似乎对在南非发现的新型冠状病毒变异体中具有三个关键突变的工程病毒微差功效。

原标题：Pfizer vaccine only slightly less effective against key South African mutations- study

NEW YORK, Jan 27: Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to lose only a small bit of effectiveness against an engineered virus with three key mutations from the new coronavirus variant found in South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.

根据有关报告，辉瑞和得克萨斯大学医学分校（UTMB）的科学家进行的这项研究 “尚未经过同行评审” ，结果显示，抗体滴度水平降低了 “不到两倍”，这表明该疫苗 “可能” （是的，是可能，不是绝对）对中和病毒有效 （专指南非的变种中发现了所谓的E484K和N501Y突变）。

The study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), which has not yet been peer-reviewed, showed a less than two-fold reduction in antibody titer levels, indicating the vaccine would likely be effective in neutralizing a virus with the so-called E484K and N501Y mutations found in the South African variant.

该研究是从接受疫苗的人身上抽取的血液进行的。它的发现是有限的，因为它没有考虑在南非新变种中发现的全部突变。

The study was conducted on blood taken from people who had received the vaccine. Its findings are limited because it does not look at the full set of mutations found in the new South African variant.

While these findings don’t indicate the need for a new vaccine to address the emerging variants, Pfizer and BioNTech are prepared to respond if a variant of SARS-CoV-2 shows evidence of escaping immunity by the COVID-19 vaccine, the companies said. The scientists are currently engineering a virus with the full set of mutations and expect to have results from that in around two weeks, according to Pei-Yong Shi, an author of the study and a professor at UTMB.

我也惊讶第发现，原来辉瑞公司的病毒基因工程一位负责人原来是中文名字，这位专家的学士在中国南京毕业后才前往美国服务至今。基本上，在科学领域，根本就打破了国籍的界限，科学是无国界可言的，追求的是人类的合作，为人类造福。

The results are more encouraging than another non-peer-reviewed study from scientists at Columbia University earlier on Wednesday, which used a slightly different method and showed antibodies generated by the shots were significantly less effective against the South Africa variant. One possible reason for the difference could be that the Pfizer findings are based on an engineered coronavirus, and the Columbia study used a pseudovirus based on the vesicular stomatitis virus, a different type of virus, UTMB’s Shi said. He said he believes that finding in pseudoviruses should be validated using the real virus.

该结果比哥伦比亚大学周三早些时候的科学家进行的另一项未经同行评议的研究更令人鼓舞，该研究使用了一种稍有不同的方法，并显示了这些注射所产生的抗体对南非变异的效力明显较低。造成这种差异的一个可能原因可能是辉瑞公司的发现基于一种工程化的冠状病毒 （并非真实的病毒；属于实验室测试），而哥伦比亚大学的研究则使用了一种基于水疱性口炎病毒的假病毒，这是另一种病毒。他说，他认为应该使用真正的病毒来验证伪病毒。（本篇中文由谷歌翻译）

The study also showed even better results against several key mutations from the highly transmissible UK variant of the virus. Shi said they were also working on an engineered virus with the full set of mutations from that variant as well. – Reuters

简而言之，市场上最令人关注的辉瑞疫苗，还正经过不断地实验，甚至开展不同国度的测试，而许多测试多数仍在实验室阶段，虽然有部分已经到了第四期的临床试验，不过长远的副作用依旧是未知数。

目前的各国疫苗被西方看作是一种“疫苗竞赛”，其实就从未百分百功效确实前已经展开，所靠的不是科学，而是宣传效果。测试中难免依靠真正的病患者来实验。别忘记，这些都是已经感染病患者，测试只是针对其体内是否有效杀除病毒，而不是“预防”方面的测试。所谓的预防，就是指“向健康人士打入预防疫苗后，是否还会受到病毒甚至是突变病毒的感染而发作”。

更长远来说，我们依旧无法确立，受疫苗着是否还会传染给其他人。台湾地区的前卫生署长杨志良28日上广播节目直言，他「看坏」台湾2021年的疫情，就算到时有疫苗，可能还是控制不下来，除了因为病毒狡猾外，接种后的不良事件，也会影响民众施打意愿，降低整体疫苗覆盖率。

这一切一切，都由科学家们继续努力工作，目前的研究都将焦点放在“疫苗的功效”短暂救人命的层面上，而众人所寻求的“疫苗安全性”方面，是还没有答案的。

评张嘴言/张延友

英文报导原文：马来西亚太阳英文报 2021年1月28日