Century-old vaccine limits COVID spread, so bring it back, urge Israeli experts

A vaccine that has been in use for almost a century limits the spread and severity of coronavirus, Israeli biologists have claimed after studying data from almost two thirds of the world’s population.

As they champion the bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, they are going head-to-head with the World Health Organization. They argue that three decades after many countries — Israel included — phased out blanket BCG shots, they should consider restoring them to fight the pandemic.

“We found that countries with more coverage of BCG in the last 15 years have better outcomes for coronavirus — better death rates and fewer people being infected,” Nadav Rappoport, a Ben-Gurion University of the Negev computational biologist, told The Times of Israel.

The BCG shot, primarily used to fight tuberculosis, was first given to humans 99 years ago, in July 1921. While the researchers say BCG is not a substitute for a vaccine against COVID-19, they do argue that data shows BCG coverage contributes to the “attenuation of the spread and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/century-old-vaccine-limits-covid-spread-so-bring-it-back-say-israeli-experts/