VOA慢速英语2021--强生称其新冠疫苗加强针增加了保护作用

The drug company Johnson & Johnson, known as J&J, said Tuesday that its own studies show a second shot of its COVID-19 vaccine¹ greatly increases protection.

The World Health Organization approved J&J's Janssen vaccine based on only one shot. But the drug company says a second dose, delivered either two or six months after the first, offers longer and greater protection.

The findings have not yet been examined by independent scientists.

The company said the single dose is 70 percent effective for up to eight months. A second dose, however, results in 94 percent protection against moderate to severe forms of the virus.

J&J said it sent the results of its study to health organizations around the world, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA. The health organizations can then consider approving a follow-up dose.

The J&J study included 30,000 people who received a second dose 56 days after their first one. J&J said people dealt with the second dose well and felt side effects similar to the first dose. The vaccine was found to be less effective over time for people over the age of 60, but still prevented hospitalization 78 percent of the time.

J&J noted² that during part of their study -- from March through late July -- the Delta³ variant⁴ of COVID-19 was present in the U.S.

Last week, the FDA recommended emergency use of a third shot for people over 65 who received the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. So far, Pfizer is the only company to send enough data to the FDA for a decision on additional shots.

Words in This Story

shot –n. an act of putting something (such as medicine or vaccine) into the body with a needle

dose –n. the amount of a medicine, drug, or vitamin that is taken at one time

variant –n. something that is different in some way from others of the same kind

1 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。

2 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。

3 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

4 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。