ReviewCureus2025
The Impact of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Revaccination on COVID-19 Infection Among Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has been hypothesized to confer nonspecific immune protection against viral infections, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This meta-analysis evaluates the protective role of BCG vaccination in preventing COVID-19 among healthcare workers (HCWs). A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that reported the effect of BCG vaccination for COVID-19 prevention in HCWs compared with placebo. Nine RCTs were included, with a total of 10,295 HCWs. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and mean differences (MDs) were calculated using random- and fixed-effects models to assess the impact on symptomatic COVID-19, severe disease, hospitalization, seropositivity, duration of illness, and serious adverse events. Heterogeneity was evaluated using I² statistics. BCG vaccination did not significantly reduce the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 (OR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.94-1.17, p = 0.43, I² = 47%), severe COVID-19 (OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.97-1.48, p = 0.09, I² = 0%), or hospitalization (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.71-1.50, p = 0.86, I² = 0%). There was no significant difference in the duration of symptomatic illness (MD = 0.09 days, 95% CI: -1.41-1.59, p = 0.90, I² = 80%) or in rates of COVID-19 seropositivity (OR = 1.27, 95% CI: 0.81-1.98, p = 0.30, I² = 76%). The incidence of serious adverse events was not significantly different between groups (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 0.34-5.97, p = 0.62, I² = 81%). This meta-analysis found no significant protective effect of BCG vaccination against any clinical or serological endpoint of COVID-19 in HCWs. The results do not support the use of BCG as a preventive measure against COVID-19 in this population.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.