Animal studies are under way, human trial protocols are taking shape and drug makers are on alert. All the international health community needs now is a human vaccine for the bird flu pandemic sweeping a cluster of Asian countries. The race for a vaccine began after the first human case emerged in Hong Kong in 1997. Backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), three research teams in the US and UK are trying to create a seed virus for a new vaccine. Their task is formidable, but researchers remain optimistic." There are obstacles, but most of the obstacles have been treated sensibly," says Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The biggest challenge is likely to be the rapidly mutating virus. Candidate vaccines produced last year against the H5N1 virus are ineffective against this year’s strain. Scientists will have to constantly monitor the changes and try to tailor the vaccine as the virus mutates. They can’t wait to see which one comes next. The urgency stems from fears that I-ISN1 will combine with a human flu virus, creating a pathogen(病原体) that could be transmitted from person to person. But if people have no immunity to the virus, the strain may not mutate as rapidly in people as it does in birds. To quickly generate the vaccine, researchers are using reverse genetics, which allows them to skip the long process of searching through reassorted viruses for the correct genetic combination. Instead, scientists clone sequences for hemagglutinin(红血球凝聚素) and neuraminidase(神经氨酸苷酶), the two key proteins in the virus. The sequences are then combined with human influenza genes to create a customized reference strain. Because products developed with reverse genetics have never been tested in humans, the candidate vaccines will first have to clear regulatory review. In anticipation, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) are both preparing pandemic response plans. The EMEA has produced a fist-track licensing program, an industry task force and detailed guidance for potential applicants. In Europe, a reassortant influenza virus -- but not the inactivated vaccine -- produced by reverse genetics would be considered a genetically modified organism, and manufacturers would need approval from their national or local safety authorities. The WHO has prepared a preliminary biosafety risk assessment of pilot-lot vaccine, which could help speed up the review. A preliminary version of their protocol calls for several hundred subjects, beginning with a group of young adults and gradually expanding to include those most susceptible to the flu -- children and the elderly." If we had product," says Lambert," it would probably be a couple of months at the earliest before we have early data in healthy adults.\ What is the author’s attitude towards the newly developed bird flu vaccine
A. Slightly approves of.
B. Depicts neutrally.
C. Slightly disapproves of.
D. Completely rejects.
含苹酸钙针晶的药材为
A. 苦参
B. 牛膝
C. 白芍
D. 龙胆
E. 防己
食品添加剂的国家产品质量标准中含有卫生学意义的指标须经。审查同意的部门是
A. 国务院有关行政部门
B. 国务院卫生行政部门
C. 省级卫生地政部门
D. 省级以上卫生行政部门
E. 国务院有关行政部门和卫生行政部门
People can get emotional about immigration. Bill O’Reilly, a talk-show host, devoted a recent segment to the story of an illegal alien who got drunk and accidentally killed two attractive white girls with his car. If only he had been deported for previous misdemeanours, Mr. O’Reilly raged, those girls would still be alive. Another talk-show host, Geraldo Rivera, during an on-air shout-joust(争吵) with Mr. O’ Reilly, denounced his demagogic choice of story-angle as" a sin". President George Bush tried again this week to bring a more rational tone to the debate. He urged the new Democratic Congress to revive the immigration reforms that the old Republican Congress killed last year. His proposal was broadly the same as before. He said he wanted to make it harder to enter America illegally, but easier to do so legally, and to offer a path to citizenship for the estimated 12m illegals who have already snuck in. The first part faces few political hurdles and is already well under way. Mr. Bush expects to have doubled the number of Border Patrol agents by the end of next year. The new recruits are being trained. And to defend against the invading legions of would-be gardeners and hotel cleaners, the frontier is also equipped with high-tech military gizmos(小发明), such as unmanned spy planes with infra-red(红外) cameras. This may be having some effect. Mr. Bush boasted that the number of people caught sneaking over the border had fallen by nearly 30% this year. And the controversial part of Mr. Bush’s immigration package--allowing more immigrants in and offering those already in America a chance to become legal -- is still just a plan. House Republicans squashed it last year. Mr. Bush senses a second chance with the new Democratic Congress, but Democrats, like Republicans, are split on the issue. Some, notably Ted Kennedy, think America should embrace hard- working migrants. Others fret that hard-working migrants will undercut the wages of the native-born. Mr. Bush would like to see the pro-immigrant wings of both parties work together to give him a bill he can sign. The Senate is expected to squeeze in a debate next month. The administration is trying to entice law-and-order Republicans on board; a recent leaked memo talked of substantial fines for illegals before they can become legal and" much bigger" fines for employers who hire them before they do. The biggest hurdle, however, may be the Democrats’ reluctance to co-operate with Mr. Bush. Some figure that, rather than letting their hated adversary share the credit for fixing the immigration system, they should stall until a Democrat is in the White House and then take it all. So there is a selfish as well as a moral argument for making a deal. The Democrats are hesitant to support Mr. Bush on this issue in that ______.
A. the plan will be of no value to the Democrats.
B. this issue involves political competition between parties.
C. they want to wait for a democratic president to improve the plan.
D. they think it is selfish for Mr. Bush to carry out the plan.