2023-04-28 13:27:54
The BCG vaccine was developed to prevent tuberculosis and is given to more than 130 million babies worldwide each year. Previous research showed that BCG also increased ‘first-line’ immunity in infants and that the vaccine protected against respiratory infections in adolescents and adults.
Doctors hoped that the vaccine could also be used to buy important time in the early days of the corona pandemic until specific corona vaccines were developed and tested.
The international research published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved an analysis of data from 3,988 healthcare workers enrolled in the study at 36 sites across Australia, Europe, and South America. The risk of symptomatic COVID-19 was 14.7% in the BCG group and 12.3% in the placebo group during the first six months after the start of the study.
The study was unable to determine whether the vaccine reduced hospitalizations or deaths due to the low number of participants with severe COVID-19.
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