According to recent studies, people in countries with large anti-tuberculosis vaccination programs have a much lower chance of being infected by the coronavirus.
COVID-19 losses of life are nearly six times lower in countries that have widely implemented the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine.
The BCG vaccine was originally created with the goal to give immunity to tuberculosis, but mass vaccinations were abandoned in many countries at different time periods.
However, specialists from the United States now believe the vaccine could boost people’s immune systems and shield them from the new silent killer.
A fresh study, which is about to be peer-reviewed, hints that countries with widespread BCG vaccinations have extremely lower rates of infection by the coronavirus than other places.
When taking a look into the mortality rates per one million people of each country with good data, the scientists estimated a COVID-19 fatality rate from the 50 countries with most cases.
They included each country’s economic capabilities as well as its population of old people. These factors could potentially distort the overall picture of death rates.
“The intriguing observation of a significant association between BCG use and lower Covid-19-attributable mortality remained discernable.
“While mortality attributable to Covid-19 has devastated global health systems and economies, striking regional differences have been observed.
“Covid-19-attributable mortality among BCG-using countries was 5.8 times lower than in non BCG-using countries,” The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health experts said in their research paper.
The piece was made available on the web archive of MedRxiv instead of an academic journal as it has not yet gone around to be looked at by other experts.
Meanwhile, other countries have also started their investigations on the positive effects of BCG against coronavirus.
An Australian group of researchers is looking into whether the vaccine will shield against COVID-19 or reduce the effectiveness of the virus.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne is currently also looking for a new way to protect the people who are fighting on the frontlines of the crisis.
People are optimistic that the BCG vaccine will strengthen the immune system of health workers, who at the moment are only protected by PPE.
“The Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine is designed to protect against tuberculosis.
“However it also boosts immunity to protect against other infections.
“The purpose of the BRACE trial is to find out whether BCG vaccination protects against Covid-19 or reduces severity or Covid-19 in Australian healthcare workers,” Experts from the institute said.
Around 4000 health workers will likely take part in the half-year-long trial.
See France 24’s interview with Annie Sparrow, World Health Organisation director general’s special advisor, on the potential of the BCG vaccine in the video below.
What are your thoughts on this incredible news? Were you vaccinated with BCG? Let us know by joining the conversation in the comments and please share this article to spread the good news.
Source: The Telegraph
