MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2020) Researchers in the United Kingdom will recruit some 10,000 people to partake in a study to establish whether the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis can help in fighting off COVID-19, media reported Sunday.
According to Sky News, the study will be trialed on health care workers and home care employees and will be led by the University of Exeter.
The UK researchers will coordinate with similar studies underway in Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Brazil the news outlet reported.
About 100 million babies are immunized with BCG vaccine every year and studies have shown that it boosts immunity in a generalized way, not only against tuberculosis.
While most nations have a blanket vaccination policy for all newborns, western European nations, Australia and New Zealand have suspended mandatory immunizations due to low rates of tuberculosis in the general population.
