coronavirus 冠状病毒，这样称呼的原因是这种病毒在显微镜下呈冠状，像一顶王冠。而 "王冠"一词在拉丁语中是corona 。按西方学术概念名称使用拉丁语(或古希腊语)的习惯，人们将corona与virus 放在一起构成合成词coronavirus，即"冠状病毒"。(virus 一词也来自拉丁语)
(CNN) — Ateam of scientists in Texas, New York and China are at work on a vaccineagainst the new virus that has infected lots of people worldwide. The NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH) is also working on a vaccine. It will take a fewmonths until the first phase of the clinical trials get underway.
来自德克萨斯州、纽约和中国的一组科学家正在研制疫苗，以对抗这种已感染世界上很多人的新型病毒。美国国立卫生研究院(简称NIH)也在着手研制疫苗。到第一阶段的临床试验开始将需要几个月的时间。
This newvirus is a coronavirus, which is the same family as the virus that causes SARS,or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which was first reported in Asia in 2002and killed more than 700 people. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS,which has killed more than 800 people since 2012, is also caused by a coronavirus.
这种新型病毒是一种冠状病毒，与引起SARS(重症急性呼吸系统综合征)的病毒属于同一科。SARS于2002年在亚洲被首次报道，导致700多人死亡。自2012年以来已经导致800多人死亡的中东呼吸综合征(MERS)也是由一种冠状病毒引起的。
"Thelesson we’ve learned is coronavirus infections are serious and one of thenewest and biggest global health threats," said Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinescientist in Houston. He added that it’s less challenging to develop a vaccinefor coronaviruses than for other viruses such as HIV or influenza. If a vaccineis developed, he said, health care workers might be among the first to receiveit because they are exposed to infected patients.
"我们得到的教训是，冠状病毒感染是严重的，是最新和最大的全球健康威胁之一，"休斯敦疫苗科学家彼得·霍特兹博士说。他补充道，开发一种针对冠状病毒的疫苗，其难度低于针对艾滋病或流感等其它病毒的疫苗。他说，如果研制出了疫苗，医护人员可能是最先接种的人，因为他们接触受感染的病人。
It is"remarkable" that scientists are able to start developing a vaccine for a virusthat was identified less than a month ago, he said. He credited Chineseresearchers, who quickly sequenced (确定…的化学结构序列) and published the virus’s genome(基因组)."With SARS, it took almost a year to be able to identify and map the fullgenetic code," he said. "Now we’re doing this in just a few weeks."
他说，科学家能够开始研制不到一个月前才被发现的病毒的疫苗，这是"非凡的"。他将这归功于中国的研究人员，因为他们迅速地对病毒的基因组进行了排序并公布了结果。他说："当时的SARS，我们花了将近一年的时间来识别和绘制完整的基因序列。现在我们只用了几周的时间。"
