Dear Reader:

Back to existing vaccines and Covid-19. Wikipedia reads: “Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG) is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis.. BCG also has some effectiveness against Buruli ulcer infection and other nontuberculous mycobacteria infections. Additionally it is sometimes used as part of the treatment of bladder cancer”-

– so it is possible for a vaccine that was designed for a particular disease to be effective regarding diseases it was not designed for. It is possible for it to be used as treatment to diseases it was not designed to prevent or treat.

From “neurosciencenews. com/ covid-19- bcg- vmp1002- vaccine- 15966”:

“Previous studies in mice have shown the BCG vaccine is effective in protecting against several respiratory viral infections… mice suffering from influenza have fewer influenza A viruses in their blood if they had previously been vaccinated with BCG”

“According to further studies, vaccination with BCG also increases the animals’ resistance to other viruses (e.g. herpes type 1 and 3). Apparently, a vaccination with BCG also activates the immune system against a viral infection. In this way, the vaccine reduces the risk of severe disease progression and thus lowers the death rate”.

“VPM1002, a vaccine candidate based on the tuberculosis BCG vaccine, may be effective in protecting against COVID-19… If effective against coronavirus, researchers hope the vaccine can bridge the time gap until a specific SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is available”.

“A large-scale study is to be carried out at several hospitals in Germany and will include older people and health care workers. Both groups are particularly at risk of the disease… VPM1002 is safe and more effective than standard vaccination… The vaccine is currently being tested in a further Phase 3 study on adults volunteers in India. It should be completed by mid 2020”.

“The higher safety profile of VPM1002 and the improved effectiveness give reason to hope that the new vaccine will also be better able to alleviate the symptoms of an infection with the SARS co-virus 2 than the BCC vaccine. ‘In addition, VPM1002 can be manufactured using state-of-the-art manufacturing methods which would make millions of doses available in a very short time… If the results are positive, VPM1002 could help ease the burden on healthcare systems until a vaccine specifically effective against SARS-CoV-2 becomes available.”

— so, my understanding: the old vaccine against tuberculosis is BCG. An improved version of BCG is the new VPM1002, and the latter may be used to prevent and treat Covid-19 starting in mid 2020, and used until a specific vaccine for Covid-19 is developed,  sometime in 2021.

anita