砍社福預算後 英國能減少青年犯罪率？

The Marcus Lipton Youth Club is the last dedicated youth center still standing in its pocket of south London.

馬可斯．利普頓青年俱樂部是倫敦南部最後一個專門的青年中心，至今仍屹立。

But it is teetering. Nearly half of London’s youth centers have closed in the past decade as Britain has cut money for youth services, as well as for welfare, schools and drug and alcohol treatment, according to the most recent available data. Marcus Lipton used to count on hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in government funding. Now, it gets nearly zero.

但它正搖搖欲墜。根據最新數據，由於英國削減青年服務，以及福利、學校和毒品與酒精治療的資金，過去十年倫敦有將近一半青年中心關閉。馬可斯．利普頓過去仰賴政府每年數十萬英鎊補助，如今幾乎為零。

“Just look around you,” said Ira Campbell, 55, the manager of the club, which offers counseling, warm meals and sports for young people. “This place is a safe haven.”

該俱樂部為青年提供諮詢、熱騰騰餐點跟運動，55歲經理坎伯說：「看看你周圍，這是一個安全避風港。」

Marcus Lipton lies in the shadow of the Loughborough Estate public housing project, where two of the Conservative government’s longtime priorities — fighting crime and trying to reduce the budget deficit — collide.

馬可斯．利普頓俱樂部正籠罩在拉夫堡莊園公共住宅計畫的陰影下，保守黨政府長期兩大優先施政項目—打擊犯罪跟試圖減少預算赤字，在該計畫有所衝突。

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is building new prisons and recruiting more police officers as part of his party’s pledge to be tough on crime. He has also proposed a budget that would make deep spending reductions in the coming years, forcing officials to find savings in programs that have already been whittled to the bone during a decade of austerity.

英國首相蘇納克正建造新的監獄，並招募更多警察，這是他的政黨嚴厲打擊犯罪承諾的部分行動。他還提出一項預算計畫，未來幾年將大幅削減支出，迫使官員們在十年撙節政策期間已被嚴重削減的項目再設法省錢。

Budget cuts during that decade, instituted in response to the global financial crisis of 2008, hit the poorest neighborhoods of Britain’s capital particularly hard, according to the Institute for Government, an independent research group in London. Those neighborhoods are also where serious youth violence, like homicide, has risen or remained disproportionately high after austerity, data from the office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan shows.

倫敦獨立研究機構政府研究所指出，為因應2008年全球金融危機，這十年間實施的預算刪減對英國首都最窮困社區的打擊尤為嚴重。根據倫敦市長卡恩辦公室的數據，這些社區也是在撙節開支政策實施後，凶殺案之類嚴重青年暴力事件有所上升或依舊居高不下的地方。

Annual knife violence involving teenage victims in the city increased by nearly 40% to 5,332 in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic began, from 3,809 in 2012, according to police figures obtained by The New York Times. (There was later a dip in serious youth violence during virus-related lockdowns, most likely because of reduced social contact.)

紐約時報從警方獲得的數據顯示，在新冠病毒大流行開始前的2019年，倫敦市涉及受害者為青少年的持刀暴力事件，從2012年的3809件增加近40%至5332件。（後來在與病毒有關的防疫封鎖期間，嚴重青年暴力事件有所減少，很可能是因為社會接觸減少。）

Residents of the Loughborough Estate, already frustrated by sharply rising utility bills and food costs, say that the government would rather pay to lock up young people than spend money on projects that might provide them with positive activities or help their parents to make ends meet.

已對急劇上漲水電費與食物價格感到沮喪的拉夫堡莊園居民們說，政府寧願花錢把年輕人關起來，也不願資助可為他們提供正面活動的計畫，或幫助他們的父母維持生計。

抗新冠潛力新藥面臨上市困難

Over the past year, the United States’ arsenal of COVID-19 treatments has shrunk as new variants of the coronavirus have eroded the potency of drug after drug. Many patients are now left with a single option, Paxlovid. While highly effective, it poses problems for many people who need it because of dangerous interactions with other medications.

過去一年，隨著新冠病毒新變異株一次次削減新冠藥物效力，美國新冠肺炎解藥庫不斷縮減。輝瑞新冠口服藥「倍拉維」成了如今許多患者唯一選項。倍拉維相當有效，但會與其他藥物產生嚴重交互作用，對需要它的許多人來說是一大問題。

But a new class of variant-proof treatments could help restock the country’s armory. Scientists on Wednesday reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a single injection of a so-called interferon drug slashed by half a COVID patient’s odds of being hospitalized.

但新一類不怕變異的療法有望為美國重新補給解藥庫。科學家在「新英格蘭醫學雜誌」八日刊登的文章中指出，只需注射一劑所謂的干擾素藥物，便能讓新冠患者住院機率大幅降低一半。

The results, demonstrated in a clinical trial of nearly 2,000 patients, rivaled those achieved by Paxlovid. And the interferon shots hold even bigger promise, scientists said. By fortifying the body’s own mechanisms for quashing an invading virus, they can potentially help defend against not only COVID, but also the flu and other viruses with the potential to kindle future pandemics.

這個結果得自於一項近兩千名患者參與的臨床實驗，效果與倍拉維不相上下。科學家指出，干擾素注射的潛力甚至大於倍拉維。藉著強化人體本身抵禦外來病毒的免疫機制，干擾素注射不只能協助對抗新冠肺炎，還能抵禦流感與其他可能在日後導致流行病的其他病毒。

For all of its promise, though, the drug — called pegylated interferon lambda — faces an uncertain road to the commercial market. Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration late last year told the drug’s maker, Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, that they were not prepared to authorize it for emergency use. Eiger executives said part of the problem seemed to be that the clinical trial did not include a U.S. site, but rather only sites in Brazil and Canada, and that it was initiated and run by academic researchers, rather than the company itself.

這款名為「聚乙二醇干擾素λ」的新藥雖然潛力無窮，但在上市之前面臨不確定前景。美國食品藥物管理局監管人員去年底向研發該藥的「艾格生物製藥」表示，管理局尚未準備批准其緊急使用。艾格主管指出，部分問題似乎出在該藥臨床試驗地點都未包括美國，只在巴西與加拿大進行，且臨床試驗是由學術研究人員而非艾格公司主導與進行。

The regulators suggested that only a large clinical trial conducted at least in part in the United States and with more involvement from the company would suffice, Eiger executives said, a scenario that would require several years and considerably more funding. An FDA spokesperson said disclosure laws prevented the agency from commenting.

艾格主管說，監管人員建議，至少要部分在美國境內進行的大規模臨床試驗，且公司參與程度增加，才算合格。這個做法要花許多年，以及更大量的資金。一名美國食品藥物管理局發言人表示，披露法律使其無法發表評論。

Those barriers are indicative of problems that some experts worry are threatening the development of a wide range of next-generation COVID treatments and vaccines — products that may help address the ongoing toll from COVID and also give scientists a head start in preparing for the next pandemic.

這些阻礙指出了某些問題，一些專家擔心這些問題將威脅廣泛的下一代新冠療法與疫苗研發，而這些產品可能有助因應新冠肺炎持續帶來的損害，並為科學家提供先機準備下一次大流行。

As it stands, Eiger executives said they might seek authorization for the interferon shot outside of the United States. China, for example, has been looking for new treatment options.

艾格高層表示，依照目前情形，他們可能會尋求美國以外的干擾素注射授權。例如中國就一直在尋求新的治療方案。