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Original poster

BCG tuberculosis vaccine may be protective against COVID-19

139 replies

rvby · 07/04/2020 21:24

economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/nations-without-bcg-vaccination-saw-higher-cases/articleshow/74956201.cms?from=mdr

Countries with a broad BCG vaccination program seem to have 1/10 the infection rates and illness rates compared to those without such a program. Sounds like there will be some trials of the vaccine for frontline staff to see if it helps reduce mortality.

I grew up in a developing country and received the BCG. Turns out it protects me from all kinds of bugs! Not just coronaviruses...

OP posts:
nonicknameseemsavailable · 07/04/2020 21:36

someone told me this the other day but I hadn't seen anything about it and had forgotten he mentioned it...... I had my BCG as a teenager. Can't remember when they stopped doing them as standard though. I think some postcodes in the UK still get them don't they?

TabbyMumz · 07/04/2020 21:36

But we had a massive bcg programme in the UK. That would mean anyone at least over the age if 45 or 50 would be immune, and that doesnt seem to be the case?

MynameisJune · 07/04/2020 21:39

I’m 35 I had my BCG, I think it stopped soon after though. It’s mainly only areas of London that get it now.

IronNeonClasp · 07/04/2020 21:39

Depends how long it lasts?

dementedpixie · 07/04/2020 21:40

I'm 46 and got BCG vaccine. Dont know how long it lasts

TheReluctantCountess · 07/04/2020 21:40

I think they stopped in the early 2000s.

justanotherneighinparadise · 07/04/2020 21:41

I didn’t need the BCG as i had a reaction to show I already had antibodies all those years ago. No idea if that’s a good thing or not but I remember st the time feeling bloody glad I wasn’t going to have a bloody great scar on my arm.

MoreOfADogPerson · 07/04/2020 21:41

I think it's a correlation study rather than suggesting that the vaccine protects against coronavirus, with the implication being that countries with mature vaccination programmes have better public health provisions overall with correspondingly better overall public health.

TabbyMumz · 07/04/2020 21:41

So the article doesnt seem to be right? Certainly not in the case of the UK.

40somethingJBJ · 07/04/2020 21:42

Not everyone had it though did they? I’m remembering an antibody test first, and that showed who needed the vaccine.

Eeyoresstickhouse · 07/04/2020 21:43

It stopped in 2005. I never had one as was off sick from school the day they were done. No catch up programme back in those days!

They are offered to certain areas of the country still and given as babies.

TabbyMumz · 07/04/2020 21:43

"Depends how long it lasts?"
They checked you for antibodies first. If you had the antibodies, you didnt need the jab. I'd presumed the antibodies are there for life, but I could be wrong.

Cornettoninja · 07/04/2020 21:46

I’m not sure if I had it or not. I remember everyone comparing their blisters and I never developed one - that’s as far as my memory goes though!

I don’t know how long a TB vaccine lasts but it would be good news if it did offer something.

HeIenaDove · 07/04/2020 21:46

Is this part of the one some of us had at school involving six small needles?

motortroll · 07/04/2020 21:47

It stopped in different areas at different times. Im 42 and none of my peers in my area had it but people I met at uni had.

TabbyMumz · 07/04/2020 21:48

The antibody test was 6 small needles in a circle on your arm. Cant remember whether if you got a reaction you needed the jab or not now. God knows how some kids had the antibodies already.

Spacecadetagain · 07/04/2020 21:48

I remember having an anti body test on my wrist .. I wasn’t immune so had the jab in my arm .. if you were immune you developed six small marks in a circle on your wrist

tilder · 07/04/2020 21:49

They're using incomplete data from countries in a different stage of the pandemic and drawing correlation with 1 factor. I really wouldn't draw strong conclusions from this.

dementedpixie · 07/04/2020 21:49

I'm in Scotland and I had the jab and I'm 46. Dh is from England, also 46 and got it too

Sexnotgender · 07/04/2020 21:50

I’m 37 and had a BCG.

ofwarren · 07/04/2020 21:51

This is in the daily mail too and it's saying immunity is up to 60 years.

QueenTaTe · 07/04/2020 21:52

I'm 30 and had it

Menora · 07/04/2020 21:52

It was nationally schools for children aged 14 from 1953 to 2005. So anyone aged 14 from 1953 was born in 1939 (so aged 81 now) and stopped for anyone born after 2005 so the last group of people who had it routinely were born in 1991

I had it but my DC have not

thelittlefox · 07/04/2020 21:53

The pre-test thing wasn't an antibody test (although I too was given that impression when I had mine in the 90's). It was a tuberculin skin test, and a reaction meant you would have an adverse to the main BCG jab, not that you had immunity already.

BCG gives protection against TB for 15-20 years only.

Random18 · 07/04/2020 21:53

I got BCG at High School.

Most of my classmates had it as a baby so it eas dependent on skin test but I was born in a neighbouring city so didn't get it as baby.

Funnily enough I don't have the crater that everyone else tends to have.

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