I just have read an interesting article that give hope to us, immigrants from Eastern European, Asian, African and South American countries that utilize Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) to prevent tuberculosis (TB).

Following successful use of Cowpox vaccination for prevention or mitigation of deadly Smallpox In mid-19th century physicians and scientists tried to use Bovine (Cow) tuberculosis bacteria (Mycobacterium Bovine) to vaccinate against TB.

Unfortunately, Mycobacterium Bovine (first distinguished by Robert Koch) proved to still be too dangerous for use as a vaccine due to severe and sometimes deadly disease it causes in humans.

French scientists Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin in Pasteur Institute in Lille, France noticed that after growing Cow tuberculosis bacteria in Glycerin-Potato-Bile media it becomes less virulent. They consecutively grown 239 generations of this bacteria in Glycerin-Potato Bile media rendering it less and less dangerous with each following generation. It took them 13 years of work to produce Bacillus Calmette-Guerin which was unable to cause disease in humans and was first used in 1921 as mean of protection against tuberculosis.

Due to bureaucratic and technical obstacles the mass use of BCG was not started until after World War II. There are only 2 countries which did not use BCG vaccination of the population USA and Netherlands.

Even though BCG vaccine does not protect against TB 100 percent it does protect from Tuberculosis Meningitis and somewhat from Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

BCG offer general protection from respiratory infections including viral infections by training innate immune system which is a first line of defense mostly guarding areas which have direct contact with environment, namely gastro-intestinal tract and airways.

The authors of the article compare statistics of death rates (mortality) related to COVID-19 between areas and countries with different policies of BCG vaccination of population.

What they discovered is that countries that have universal BCG vaccination at birth such as Eastern European countries have 9.92 times lower death rates from COVID-19 than Western European countries where BCG was not administered or administered inconsistently.

Interesting and unique situation exists in Germany which was separated in two parts, Eastern and Western, after World War II and different policies of BCG vaccination was adapted. In West Germany, those 22-59-year old’s today are vaccinated, while in East Germany, those 45-84-year-old today received at least one dose of BCG. Comparison between these 2 regions revealed that average COVID-19 mortality in Western Germany was 2.9 times higher than in Eastern one. Similarly, mortality was lower in South American countries that have BCG vaccination in comparison with USA where vaccination was never adopted and testing for TB with consequent treatment was used to handle TB infection.

It is too early to recommend BCG vaccination for the control and prevention of COVID-19 without evidence from clinical trials, but the possibility that direct exposure to attenuated BCG vaccine at infancy could result in life-long enhancement in immune surveillance and resistance to other infections is remarkable.

Here is link to the article.