This conclusion was made by scientists from New York Institute of Technologywho published the results of their research on the site MedRxiv (we immediately mention that this is the so-called preprint of a scientific article, the work has not yet been reviewed).
Experts have repeatedly noticed that mortality from COVID-19 is very different in different countries. For example, if in South Korea it fluctuates around one percent of the number of confirmed cases, then in Italy exceeds 10 percent. Different explanations are offered: authorities mitigation policies, healthcare infrastructure, testing coverage, age composition of the population (at risk – older), and so on.
The authors of this study suggested that it could be vaccination against tuberculosis with BCG (Bacillus Calmet-Guerin).
It has already been proven earlier: this vaccine helps in the fight against leprosy, non-tuberculous mycobacteriosis, is used in the treatment of bladder cancer, and so on. It was found that countries where BCG is not used (including Italy, the Netherlands, USA) suffer from COVID-19 more than others, and vice versa.
In their work, scientists took into account states with a population of over a million people, and also divided the countries into three groups according to the level of welfare (assuming that in rich countries health care is better developed). Most poor countries using BCG vaccines reported no deaths from COVID-19 at the time of the study. However, the authors of the study suggested that this may be due to a low level of diagnosis or deliberate distortion of statistics, therefore, such anomalies were excluded from the calculation.
The result showed that middle- and high-income countries where vaccination against tuberculosis has been going on for many years have a much lower mortality rate from the new coronavirus. Where BCG began to be used relatively recently (for example, Iran – 1984), mortality is also quite high. Scientists believe: this confirms the hypothesis that vaccination against tuberculosis in childhood increases the protective functions of the body to old age.
Note that at the moment, a relatively low mortality rate from COVID-19 is also observed in Russia and other countries of the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe, where BCG vaccination has been stably conducted for many years.
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