<The Korea Times> Dec.1, 2020
Korea signs deal with AstraZeneca for COVID vaccine (한국,아스트라제네카와 코로나 백신 거래를 계약하다)
The government has signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to secure 25 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, two sources directly involved with the matter said Monday. They said SK Bioscience would handle the manufacturer of the vaccine, known as AZD1222, for domestic distribution. 정부가 아스트라제네카를 상대로 250만 개 분량의 코로나 백신 거래를 계약했다고 양측 관계자들이 지난 월요일에 밝혔다. AZD1222라는 이름으로 알려진 이 백신의 국내 생산은 SK 바이오사이언스가 맡게될 것이라고 말했다.
"The government agreed with AstraZeneca to secure a supply of its coronavirus vaccine," a government official said, asking not to be identified. "정부는 코로나 바이러스 백신 공급량을 확보하기 위해 아스트라제니카와 합의 했습니다."라고 익명의 정부 담당자가 전했다.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Korea was in a "critical phase" after new daily COVID-19 infections soared above the 400 thresholds. Chung told the public that the government would secure 30 million vaccine doses, although ruling party lawmakers are asking relevant agencies to secure more. 정세균 국무총리는 일일 코로나19 신규 확진자가 400명 한계점을 넘어가면서 한국이 현재 "중대한 시점"에 있다고 얘기했다. 그는 여당의원들이 관련 기관을 통해 더 많은 양을 확보해야 한다고 요청하고 있지만 정부는 3천만 분을 확보할 것이라고 밝혔다.
ZAD1222, the result of collaboration between Oxford University and AstraZenca, is drawing attention around the world because it was the first vaccine material to be given permission to undergo Phase 3 clinical trials. 옥스퍼드 대학교와 아스트라제네카의 합작으로 만들어진 ZAD1222는 3단계 임상실험을 허가 받은 첫번째 백신으로 알려지며 세계의 이목을 끌었다.
오늘의 단어
- secure : (힘들게) 얻어내다, 획득하다
- threshold : 문지방, 문턱 / 한계점
After year-long sprint, COVID-19 vaccines finally at hand (일년간의 전력질주 끝에 마침내 손에 넣게 된 코로나19 백신)
Extraordinary achievement will not mean that world will be vaccinated right away 눈부신 성과는 전세계가 바로 백신을 접종받는 다는 것을 의미하지 않는다.
Less than a year after an unknown coronavirus that has claimed 1.4 million lives began spreading across the globe, a number of highly promising COVID-19 vaccines are on the cusp of release. Health authorities could give a green light for emergency use within weeks, which would mark the most rapid vaccine development for a pandemic in history - but many questions remain.
When will jab be available? 언제부저 예방접종이 가능한가?
After months without a visible breakthrough, everything sped up in November, when several pharmaceutical companies made encouraging preliminary announcements about the efficacy of their vaccines.
Across the Atlantic, vaccination campaign could start in the United States as early as mid-December, assuming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves an accelerated timetable for rollout. Chinese authorities have already begun jabbing high-risk patients, and in Russia two vaccines were validated for use even before the final phase of clinical trials had begun.
But this extraordinary achievement will not mean that a waiting world will be vaccinated right away.
"Initial supply of COVID19 vaccines will be limited, so healthworkers, older people and other at-risk populations will be prioritized," WHO head recently tweeted.
Which vaccine is best? 어떤 백신이 가장 좋은가?
Too early to say. Since Nov. 9, four drug makers have announced that their vaccines work, most of them more than 90 percent of the time. The first to report Phase 3 results was the U.S.-German collaboration between pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech start-up BioNTech, followed by the U.S. firm Moderna, a British partnership between AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Russia's state-run Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
All the vaccines unveiled are near the end of so-called Phase 3 clinical trials, the final step in a process that tests safety and efficacy on tens of thousands of volunteers of different ages and ethnicities spread across the world. The threshold for releasing the findings - the number of people infected with COVID-19 - was different in each case : 170 for Pfizer / BioNTech, 95 for Moderna, 131 for AstraZeneca/Oxford, and only 39 for the Gamaleya Institute.
Pifzer reported 95 percent efficacy, with only eight of the 170 COVID-19 patients coming from the vaccinated group. For Moderna - with 94.5 percent efficacy - it was almost identical, while Gamaleya's Sputnik V vaccine reported 91.4 percent efficacy. The calculations for AstraZeneca's two-dose vaccine were more complicated.
But the success rate is not the only criterion in determining which vaccine will be adopted in different circumstances. Cost and logistics are also factors. Moderna's vaccine must be kept at -20 degrees Celsius, while Pfizers's requires an even chiller 70C to remain viable. AstrZeneca's vaccine, by contrast, can be stored at the temperature of a normal fridge.
The biggest question mark hanging over all of these vaccines is how long immunity lasts. All the results were reported only a few weeks after the vaccines were administered. "How long will protection last?"
Scientists also still don't know if the vaccines will be as effective with high-risk individuals, especially the elderly, who are far more susceptible to life-threatening symptoms.
오늘의 단어
- sprint : 전력 질주, 전력 질주하다.
- be on the cusp of : 막 ~하려는 시점이다. (cusp: 접점, 끝)
- mark : (새로운 일이 일어날) 전조이다, ~일 것임을 보여주다.
- jab : 잽을 날리다, 쿡 찌르다 / 예방주사
- preliminary : 예비적인, 임시의
- rollout : 첫 공개, 첫 개시 / 출시하다, 시작하다 (=launch)
- criterion : 표준, 기준
- administer : (약물을) 투여하다