VOA常速英语:英国批准牛津新冠疫苗

This is VOA news. Via remote, I'm Jim Bertel. A new vaccine will be rolled out in Britain with a focus on quick mass protection. Britain's health department said it was authorizing emergency use of the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. AP's Karen Chammas reports. The approval and a shift in policy will speed up rollout of the vaccine in the U.K. which comes as a surge in infections threatens to swamp British hospitals. Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the vaccine brings light at the end of the tunnel. "I am now, with this approval this morning, highly confident that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by the spring that we can now see a route out of this pandemic." Coronavirus vaccines have typically been given in two doses, with an initial shot followed by a booster about three weeks later. But in a change of approach, the British government said with the AstraZeneca vaccine it would prioritize giving as many people as possible a single dose, which is believed to give a large measure of protection against the virus. Karen Chammas, London.

Scientists say they have a lot to learn about the new variants of the coronavirus but prevention remains the key. AP's Jackie Quinn reports. Now that the variant moving through England has been detected in the U.S., people are wondering does it spread more quickly and if they might get even sicker. A former CDC official says there are nearly two dozen mutations of the coronavirus already. There are still a lot of changes to see if they might trigger more severe illness. A virus expert at the University of Cambridge says the variant there could be two times more infectious than the earlier strain and that is causing concern. While it's not uncommon for viruses to mutate, experts are concerned if the mutations change the proteins on the virus surface, it could make immune from antibody's in drugs. I'm Jackie Quinn. This is VOA news.