ArticleScientific reports2021
Reconcile the debate over protective effects of BCG vaccine against COVID-19.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Randomized clinical trial of BCG vaccine in patients with convalescent COVID-19: Clinical evolution, adverse events, and humoral immune response.Journal of internal medicine · 2022Trial
- BCG immunization mitigates SARS-CoV-2 replication in macaques via monocyte efferocytosis and neutrophil recruitment in lungs.JCI insight · 2025Article
- Evaluation of combined BCG and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for immune enhancement and lung protection in Syrian hamsters.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Immune interaction between SARS-CoV-2 andFrontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Prophylactic and therapeutic insights into trained immunity: A renewed concept of innate immune memory.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2022Review
- Clinical Outcomes of Individuals with COVID-19 and Tuberculosis during the Pre-Vaccination Period of the Pandemic: A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- Potential of Microneedle Systems for COVID-19 Vaccination: Current Trends and Challenges.Pharmaceutics · 2022Review
- Article
- Potential long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the pulmonary vasculature: a global perspective.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2022Review
- Childhood Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination seems to selectively protect adult males from COVID-19 infection.Allergy · 2022Article
- Long COVID and its Management.International journal of biological sciences · 2022Review
- A century of BCG vaccination: Immune mechanisms, animal models, non-traditional routes and implications for COVID-19.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- The COVID-19/Tuberculosis Syndemic and Potential Antibody Therapy for TB Based on the Lessons Learnt From the Pandemic.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Response of vaccination on community transmission of COVID-19: a dynamical approach.The European physical journal. Special topics · 2022Article
- Country-level factors dynamics and ABO/Rh blood groups contribution to COVID-19 mortality.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Exploring the COVID-19 vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants: where do we stand and where do we go?Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2021Review
- COVID-19 and Beyond: Exploring Public Health Benefits from Non-Specific Effects of BCG Vaccination.Microorganisms · 2021Review
- 100 years of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin immunotherapy: from cattle to COVID-19.Nature reviews. Urology · 2021Review
- The Global Interest in Vaccines and Its Prediction and Perspectives in the Era of COVID-19. Real-Time Surveillance Using Google Trends.International journal of environmental research and public health · 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
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
While awaiting the COVID-19 vaccines, researchers have been actively exploring the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the new virus, among which the BCG vaccine (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) receives the most attention. While many reports suggest a potential role for BCG immunization in ameliorating SARS-CoV-2 infection, these findings remain controversial. With country-level COVID-19 outbreak data from Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, and BCG program data from World Atlas of BCG Policies and Practices and WHO/UNICE, we estimated a dynamic model to investigate the effect of BCG vaccination across time during the pandemic. Our results reconcile these varying reports regarding protection by BCG against COVID-19 in a variety of clinical scenarios and model specifications. We observe a notable protective effect of the BCG vaccine during the early stage of the pandemic. However, we do not see any strong evidence for protection during the later stages. We also see that a higher proportion of vaccinated young population may confer some level of communal protection against the virus in the early pandemic period, even when the proportion of vaccination in the older population is low. Our results highlight that while BCG may offer some protection against COVID-19, we should be cautious in interpreting the estimated effectiveness as it may vary over time and depend on the age structure of the vaccinated population.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.