Dear Reader:

1. Wikipedia has the following, updated statistics in its “Coronavirus disease 2019” entry, as shown in the “fatality rate by age” graph: 0.2% is the fatality rate for ages 10-39; 0.4% for ages 40-49, 1.3% for ages 50-59, 3.6% for ages 60-69, 8% for ages 70-79, and 14.8% for age 80 and over.

My Note: clearly, age is a huge factor determining fatality rate, from 0.2% up to 14.8%. Those 80 years and older have a mortality rate 74 times greater than the mortality rate of people 10-39 years old.

The following is a simple calculation I made, (understanding that it will not result in the true mortality rate aka case fatality rate for Covid-19): I divided the available, updated number (worldometers)  of global deaths, 61,681 by 1,154,169 global tested & confirmed cases of infection (the actual number of infected people is much higher than the number of tested-and-confirmed cases), and got 5.344%. This number is very much an average, and it has little meaning as a predictor of mortality if age is not considered.

2. A website: irishtimes, com/ news/ health/ tuberculosis- vaccine- potential- game- changer- in- covid- 19- fight has an article published today by Kevin O’Sullivan (an environmental and science editor) about a study that indicates that “the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis could help to protect against Covid-19″, and could help to “curb the pandemic, according to a leading immunologist“.

The leading immunologist he mentions is Prof Luke O’Neil. Wikipedia states about the man, that he is a “professor of biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin.. completed his postgraduate study at the University of London where he was awarded a PhD in Pharmacology.. Following his PhD, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge… He has made pioneering discoveries in the area of metabolic programming in immunity.. He has co-founded Inflazome (Inlazome Ltd. engages in developing orally available drugs.. These drugs target the inflammatory driven diseases).. O’Neil was awarded the Royal Dublin Society & The Irish Times Robert Boyle Medal for scientific excellence in 2009, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences in 2012 and the European Federation of immunology Societies Medal in 2014”- these are not all of his professional accomplishments.

Before I quote from the article published today, I will quote from what wikipedia says on BCG vaccine: “Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine 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”.

And now, the article: “A study indicating that the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis could help to protect against Covid-19 is ‘a potential game-changer’ in global efforts to curb the pandemic’, according to a leading immunologist. The research indicating that countries whose populations have high levels of BCG vaccination had significantly fewer Covid-19 deaths was the most significant development since the virus has spread’, said Prof Luke O’Neill, who has specialised in study of the vaccine at Trinity College Dublin.

While he stressed the research was largely a statistical one and so came with caveats, there was a case for authorities moving to provide a BCG vaccine top-up for everybody age over 70. ‘This is feasible and should be considered. It doesn’t mean we change behaviour, such as physical distancing and washing your hands,’ he said.'”.

3. A website www. virology. ws, has an article in it from two days ago, April 2, 2020 by Dr. Gertrud U. Rey, (a trained virologist, a patent agent with expertise in the areas of pharmaceuticals and biotechnological arts, “has diverse working knowledge of molecular biology, virology, immunology, biochemistry and genetics”) called “Why is Covid-19 less severe in children?”

It reads: “… most infected children experience mild symptoms, respond well to treatment, recover more quickly than adults, and have a better prognosis… According to the largest study of COVID-19 in children to date, more than 90% of children with laboratory- confirmed COVID-19 had asymptomatic, mild, or moderate disease. A comprehensive review of COVID-19 in children published on March 23 shows that even in Italy, the country with the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths so far, only 1.2% of patients were children, and none of these children died. What is the reason for this low morbidity and mortality in children? Although the answer isn’t clear, there are a few possible explanations… It is also possible that early childhood vaccines provide some protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2. For example, a study from 2008 shows that the measles vaccine elicits neutralizing (virus-inactivating) antibodies against SARS-CoV, the virus responsible for the 2003 coronavirus epidemic. Immunity derived from childhood vaccines typically wanes with age, thereby possibly increasing the risk of severe COVID-19 in the elderly.”

I looked up the Abstract of the 2008 study she mentioned in www. ncbi. nlm. hih. gov/ pubmed/ 18346823. It is called: “Introduction of neutralizing antibodies and cellular immune responses against SARS coronavirus by recombinant measles viruses”. It reads: “Live attenuated recombinant measles viruses (rMV).. Both recombinant viruses stably expressed the corresponding SARS-CoV proteins.. The antibodies induced by rMV-S had a high neutralizing effect on SARS-CoV as well as on MV”.

* to be continued.

anita