Coronavirus pandemic | BCG vaccine could slow down COVID-19 spread, says study

Researchers have found that countries with mandatory BCG vaccination saw slower infection and death rates during the initial period of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Moneycontrol News

August 02, 2020 / 18:06 IST

5 | India to get 100 million AstraZeneca's vaccine shots by December 2020, say Reports: With Covishield, the coronavirus vaccine candidate jointly developed by the University of Oxford and British firm AstraZeneca entering phase 3 trials, Serum Institute of India (SII) has started ramping up the production of the vaccine. The world's largest vaccine maker plans to have 100 million doses ready by December 2020 for an inoculation drive that could begin across India that same month, Bloomberg reported on November 13.

At a time countries are racing to find a vaccine for the deadly and highly contagious novel coronavirus disease, a recent study has re-established the efficacy of the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin or BCG vaccine in slowing down the spread of COVID-19.

Scientists have found that the vaccine also helps bring down the coronavirus mortality rates. It is most effective in battling the disease in the first 30 days of getting vaccinated, the study published in the journal Science Advances states.

The study also claims that the COVID-19 mortality rate in the United States would have been far lower had the government-mandated BCG vaccination there decades ago. Researchers have found that countries with mandatory BCG vaccination saw slower infection and death rates during the initial period of the COVID-19 outbreak.

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The rate of increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in 135 nations and deaths in 134 nations during the initial phase of the coronavirus outbreak were studied. Based on these findings, the scientists involved in the research concluded that the BCG vaccine could help in the fight against the coronavirus disease.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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