VOA健康报道2022--Learning to Live with COVID

Learning to Live with COVID

After two years of pandemic emergency, could 2022 be the year the world finally learned to live with COVID-19?

From Asia to Africa, countries re-opened for business and visitors following developments in COVID-19 vaccination¹ and treatment.

On New Year's Day, Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced the easing of COVID-19 restrictions². He said his country had "moved into the endemic" period of the pandemic. Endemic means a disease has settled in a place for years to come.

Britain's Prime Minister at the time, Boris Johnson, took similar action later that month. Announcing an end to requirements for face coverings, he said, "We will trust the judgment³ of the British people and no longer criminalize anyone who chooses not to wear one."

The moves were the start of re-opening borders to members of the European Union and then to vaccinated⁴ travelers from around the world.

Australian officials, however, denied entry to Novak Djokovic, the world's top tennis player, in January. The country's health officials ruled that Djokovic failed to meet the country's vaccination requirement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) added in January that countries could consider easing COVID rules if they had high vaccination rates and strong healthcare systems.

In June, South Africa lifted its COVID restrictions. Visitors can come and go without vaccination papers or testing. Other African countries including Madagascar, Egypt, and Botswana soon followed.

Many Asian countries opened back up in 2022 as well. Thailand, Vietnam, India, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia all eased restrictions and welcomed visitors.

Paxlovid and bivalents

In the State of the Union speech to Congress in March, American President Joe Biden said, "Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again."

He noted⁵ that the gathering⁶ did not require face coverings. That was possible, he said in his speech, because of the progress in vaccine⁷ and anti-viral treatment efforts.

As the Omicron version of the virus was quickly spreading around the world, United States health officials approved the first drug against COVID-19 that could be taken at home.

The drug, Paxlovid, is a pill made by the U.S. drug company Pfizer. All the earlier approved drugs against COVID require injection directly into the blood by healthcare professionals.

Pfizer made Paxlovid available at low prices to the poorest countries.

Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota spoke⁸ about Paxlovid at the time. He said: "You're looking at a 90 percent decreased risk of hospitalization and death in a high-risk group..."

The high-risk group includes older people and those with conditions like being severely⁹ overweight or having heart disease.

In August, U.S. health officials approved new vaccines¹⁰ made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The new shots are called "bivalent." They are designed to protect against both the earliest and newer versions of Omicron called BA.4 and BA.5.

The approval of the updated vaccines is the first step toward dealing¹¹ with COVID-19 vaccine updates in the same way as yearly flu shots. In this case, health officials ordered vaccine makers¹² to make changes and to target the latest coronavirus versions without depending on human testing.

The U.S. was not the only country with plans to update COVID-19 vaccines. Health officials in Britain and other European countries also offered "bivalent" shots to target different versions of the virus.

1 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。

2 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

3 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

4 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？

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 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。

8 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。

9 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

10 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。

11 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

12 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》