BCG JABS MEAN YOU ARE 6 TIMES LESS LIKELY TO GET VIRUS

BCG jabs mean you are six times less likely to get coronavirus, study finds
New research suggests that countries with widespread tuberculosis vaccination programmes have much lower rates of the Covid-19 virus

By
Verity Bowman

8 April 2020


Coronavirus death rates are almost six times lower in countries with a widespread vaccination programme involving the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) jab, a new study has found.

The BCG vaccine gives immunity to tuberculosis, but mass vaccination was dropped in the UK in 2005 when rates of the lung infection dropped.

Yet US-based experts now think the vaccine could improve immune systems and protect people from infection.

New research, which is yet to be peer reviewed, suggests that countries with widespread BCG vaccination programmes have much lower rates of the coronavirus than nations without.

Looking at the mortality per one million residents of each country with sufficient data, the researchers made an estimate on the coronavirus fatality rate from the top 50 countries reporting highest case events.

Researchers factored in a nation's economic status as well as its elderly population, factors which could distort the overall picture of death rates.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health experts said in their paper: "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The paper was published on the online archive MedRxiv rather than an academic journal as it has not yet been peer-reviewed by other academics.
The research comes as others around the world launch trials investigating the possible benefits of BCG vaccination amid the coronavirus pandemic.

One team in Australia is trialing whether the vaccination will protect against Covid-19 or reduce severity or Covid-19 in healthcare workers.

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne fast-tracking human studies in order to find a quick solution to protect those on the frontline of the pandemic.

It is hoped that the vaccine will boost the immune systems of health workers, who are currently only protected by PPE.

Researchers from the institute said: “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.”

It is thought around 4,000 healthcare workers will participate in the six-month trial.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/0 ... udy-finds/

Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination and COVID-19
Scientific Brief
12 April 2020
Summary

There is no evidence that the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) protects people against infection with COVID-19 virus. Two clinical trials addressing this question are underway, and WHO will evaluate the evidence when it is available. In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19. WHO continues to recommend neonatal BCG vaccination in countries or settings with a high incidence of tuberculosis.1

There is experimental evidence from both animal and human studies that the BCG vaccine has non-specific effects on the immune system. These effects have not been well characterized and their clinical relevance is unknown.2,3

On 11 April 2020, WHO updated its ongoing evidence review of the major scientific databases and clinical trial repositories, using English, French and Chinese search terms for COVID-19, coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and BCG.

The review yielded three preprints (manuscripts posted online before peer-review), in which the authors compared the incidence of COVID-19 cases in countries where the BCG vaccine is used with countries where it is not used and observed that countries that routinely used the vaccine in neonates had less reported cases of COVID-19 to date. Such ecological studies are prone to significant bias from many confounders, including differences in national demographics and disease burden, testing rates for COVID-19 virus infections, and the stage of the pandemic in each country.

The review also yielded two registered protocols for clinical trials, both of which aim to study the effects of BCG vaccination given to health care workers directly involved in the care of patients with COVID-19.4,5

BCG vaccination prevents severe forms of tuberculosis in children and diversion of local supplies may result in neonates not being vaccinated, resulting in an increase of disease and deaths from tuberculosis.6-8 In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19. WHO continues to recommend neonatal BCG vaccination in countries or settings with a high incidence of tuberculosis.

References

BCG vaccines: WHO position paper – February 2018. Vaccins BCG: Note de synthèse de l’OMS – Février 2018. Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 2018;93(8):73–96. Published 2018 Feb 23.
de Bree LCJ, Marijnissen RJ, Kel JM, et al. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin-Induced Trained Immunity Is Not Protective for Experimental Influenza A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7N9) Infection in Mice [published correction appears in Front Immunol. 2018 Oct 25;9:2471]. Front Immunol. 2018;9:869. Published 2018 Apr 30. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2018.00869.
Arts RJW, Moorlag SJCFM, Novakovic B, et al. BCG Vaccination Protects against Experimental Viral Infection in Humans through the Induction of Cytokines Associated with Trained Immunity. Cell Host Microbe. 2018;23(1):89–100.e5. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2017.12.010.
Reducing Health Care Workers Absenteeism in Covid-19 Pandemic Through BCG Vaccine (BCG-CORONA). https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04328441.
BCG Vaccination to Protect Healthcare Workers Against COVID-19 (BRACE). https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04327206.
Cernuschi T, Malvolti S, Nickels E, Friede M. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine: A global assessment of demand and supply balance. Vaccine. 2018 Jan 25; 36(4): 498–506. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.12.010
du Preez K, Seddon JA, Schaaf HS, Hesseling AC, Starke JR, Osman M, Lombard CJ, Solomons R. Global shortages of BCG vaccine and tuberculous meningitis in children. Lancet Glob Health. 2019 Jan;7(1):e28-e29. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30474-1.
Roy P, Vekemans J, Clark A, Sanderson C, Harris RC, White RG. Potential effect of age of BCG vaccination on global paediatric tuberculosis mortality: a modelling study. Lancet Glob Health. 2019 Dec;7(12):e1655-e1663. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30444-9.

https://www.who.int/news-room/commentar ... A9rin-(bcg)-vaccination-and-covid-19

IMHO the WHO under Timid Ted's leadership doesn't have the bravado or the confidence to take the difficult decisions with the COVID-19 pandemic. While the research hasn't been peer-reviewed, even if the results are half right, that could amount to three times fewer cases. IMHO the sheer magnitude of the difference in the number of cases warrants the immediate use of the BCG for front line staff (I'm surprised it isn't already mandatory for health workers). Plus research has shown that the BCG offers some 'beneficial effects against non-related infections' and 'protection against non-related viral infections.' (see the two extracts from the link below).


'The tuberculosis vaccine bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has heterologous beneficial effects against non-related infections.'

'In conclusion, BCG induces epigenetic reprogramming in human monocytes in vivo, followed by functional reprogramming and protection against non-related viral infections, with a key role for IL-1β as a mediator of trained immunity responses.'

Arts RJW, Moorlag SJCFM, Novakovic B, et al. BCG Vaccination Protects against Experimental Viral Infection in Humans through the Induction of Cytokines Associated with Trained Immunity. Cell Host Microbe. 2018;23(1):89–100.e5. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2017.12.010.

There are a lot of very poor countries around the world, where it would be expected that COVID-19 would have a much higher number of cases and deaths, but as yet this hasn't occured. The list of countries still vaccinating with the BCG compared with the list of countries COVID-19 statistics, seem to back up the theory of the BCG reducing the chance of the virus six-fold.

The BCG World Atlas: A Database of Global BCG Vaccination Policies and Practices
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3062527/

Confirmed Cases and Deaths by Country, Territory, or Conveyance
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

China 2 deaths per million hhhmmmmmm

Coronavirus: Ecuador sees massive surge in deaths in April
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52324218

Why has Ecuador had a massive surge in deaths? IMHO it is because unlike other Latin American countries or economically less developed countries in other parts of the world, it is the only one to stop it's BCG vaccination program (see figure two in the link below).On the map in figure two it sticks out like a sore thumb as the only purple shaded area in South or Central America, Africa or Asia.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3062527/
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=214245

IMHO this looks like more proof of a link between COVID-19 and the BCG.