美国顶级传染病专家福奇日前指出，已经发现新冠病毒产生变异的迹象，而且这种变异可能导致该病毒更容易传播，但目前尚不清楚感染这种新变异病原体的人病情是否会更严重。

The coronavirus has mutated in a way that might help the pathogen spread more easily, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.

白宫卫生顾问安东尼·福奇博士本周四（7月2日）表示，新冠病毒已经发生变异，可能会让病原体变得更容易传播。

Research is underway to confirm the possible mutation and its implications, Fauci said, adding that “there’s a little dispute about it.” Viruses naturally mutate and scientists have previously said they have observed minor mutations in the coronavirus that have not impacted its ability to spread or cause disease in any significant way.

福奇称，目前正在进行研究以证实这一可能发生的变异及其潜在影响。他补充道：“关于病毒变异存在一点争议。”病毒会自然地发生变异，科学家先前指出，他们已经观察到新冠病毒发生了一点微小的变异，但没有显著地影响到病毒传播或致病的能力。

The possible mutation that Fauci cited was reported on by investigators at Los Alamos National Laboratory in an article published by the journal Cell earlier Thursday. Virologists at Scripps Research in Florida also wrote about the mutation last month, saying it “enhances viral transmission.” It’s unclear when the mutation might have occurred.

洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室的研究人员周四早些时候发表在期刊《细胞》上的一篇文章报告了福奇所说的可能发生的变异。上个月，佛罗里达州的斯克里普斯研究所的病毒学家也写了关于病毒变异的报告，指出变异“加速了病毒传播”。目前尚不清楚病毒发生变异的时间。

“The data is showing there’s a single mutation that makes the virus be able to replicate better and maybe have high viral loads,” Fauci said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dr. Howard Bauchner. “We don’t have a connection to whether an individual does worse with this or not; it just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible.”

福奇在和《美国医学会杂志》主编霍华德·鲍士纳博士一起参加访谈时说：“数据显示，有一种单一变异能让病毒更好地复制，也许还会提高病毒载量。我们不能确定个体在感染这种变异病毒后病情是否会更严重；目前看来这种变异病毒就是可以更好地复制，也许传播得还更快。”

He added that researchers are “still at the stage of trying to confirm that.”

他补充道，研究人员“仍然在试图去证实的阶段”。

The World Health Organization and its team of global researchers have been keeping an eye on more than 60,000 different genetic sequences of the coronavirus collected from samples taken all over the world.

世界卫生组织及其全球研究团队一直在密切关注从世界各地采集的新冠病毒的6万多种不同基因序列的样本。

All viruses evolve, or mutate, throughout their lifespan. RNA viruses like the coronavirus mutate more quickly than some other viruses, top WHO officials told reporters last month, because unlike human DNA, RNA viruses do not have “natural error checking,” meaning that the code of the virus cannot correct itself.

所有的病毒在其生命周期都会发生进化或变异。顶级世卫组织官员上个月告诉记者说，像新冠病毒这种核糖核酸病毒比其他一些病毒变异得更快，因为和人类的脱氧核糖核酸不同，核糖核酸病毒没有“天然的错误检查机制”，这意味着病毒的基因编码不能自我更正。

Not every mutation will lead to any meaningful change in the behavior of the virus or its impact on humans, the WHO previously said. Nonetheless, the United Nations health agency has formed a comprehensive data base of genetic sequences to investigate any potential mutations.

世界卫生组织先前曾说过，不是每种变异都会导致病毒的行为或病毒对人类的影响产生重大变化。不过，联合国卫生机构已经组建了一个基因序列综合数据库来调查任何潜在的变异。

Earlier Thursday, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO’s chief scientist, told reporters at a news briefing that “natural mutations” of the virus are to be expected. She explained that there are certain “domains” of the virus that are “more critical,” such as the spike protein, from which the coronavirus gets its name.

周四早些时候，世界卫生组织首席科学家索姆亚·斯瓦米纳坦博士在一次新闻发布会上告诉记者说，病毒发生“自然变异”是可能的。她解释道，病毒的某些“领域”“更为关键”，比如纤突蛋白，新冠病毒的名字就来源于它。

“If major mutations occurred in those domains, it might actually affect the development of vaccines,” she said.

她说：“如果纤突蛋白等主要领域发生重大变异，可能会影响到疫苗的研发。”