ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2020
BCG Vaccination and Mortality of COVID-19 across 173 Countries: An Ecological Study.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04659941 (Use of BCG Vaccine as a Preventive Measure for COVID-19 in Health Care Workers), which is not on this map. Cited by 29 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Use of BCG Vaccine as a Preventive Measure for COVID-19 in Health Care Workers
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine to reduce healthcare worker absenteeism in COVID-19 pandemic, a randomized controlled trial.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2022Trial
- Review
- Review
- Previous BCG vaccination is associated with less severe clinical progression of COVID-19.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Green Tea Consumption and the COVID-19 Omicron Pandemic Era: Pharmacology and Epidemiology.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Immunological effects of the PE/PPE family proteins ofFrontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- A Comparative Analysis on the Social Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings and Non-fragile and Conflict Affected Settings.International journal of health policy and management · 2023Article
- Delivery of spike-RBD by bacterial type three secretion system for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- BCG vaccination at birth and COVID-19: a case-control study among U.S. military Veterans.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2022Article
- BCG Vaccination: A potential tool against COVID-19 and COVID-19-like Black Swan incidents.International immunopharmacology · 2022Review
- Is the course of COVID-19 associated with tuberculin skin test diameter? A retrospective study.Journal of medical virology · 2022Article
- Pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 andFrontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Effect of BCG on Respiratory Complications Caused by COVID-19: A Scoping Review.International journal of general medicine · 2022Article
- Spurious early ecological association suggesting BCG vaccination effectiveness for COVID-19.PloS one · 2022Article
- The Natural Effect of BCG Vaccination on COVID-19: The Debate Continues.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Does BCG provide long-term protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection? A case-control study in Quebec, Canada.Vaccine · 2021Article
- A global country-level analysis of the relationship between obesity and COVID-19 cases and mortality.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2021Article
- COVID-19 and Beyond: Exploring Public Health Benefits from Non-Specific Effects of BCG Vaccination.Microorganisms · 2021Review
- Article
- The association between malaria prevalence and COVID-19 mortality.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ecological studies have suggested fewer COVID-19 morbidities and mortalities in Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-vaccinated countries than BCG-non-vaccinated countries. However, these studies obtained data during the early phase of the pandemic and did not adjust for potential confounders, including PCR-test numbers per population (PCR-tests). Currently-more than four months after declaration of the pandemic-the BCG-hypothesis needs reexamining. An ecological study was conducted by obtaining data of 61 factors in 173 countries, including BCG vaccine coverage (%), using morbidity and mortality as outcomes, obtained from open resources. 'Urban population (%)' and 'insufficient physical activity (%)' in each country was positively associated with morbidity, but not mortality, after adjustment for PCR-tests. On the other hand, recent BCG vaccine coverage (%) was negatively associated with mortality, but not morbidity, even with adjustment for percentage of the population ≥ 60 years of age, morbidity, PCR-tests and other factors. The results of this study generated a hypothesis that a national BCG vaccination program seems to be associated with reduced mortality of COVID-19, although this needs to be further examined and proved by randomized clinical trials.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.