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The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine—which prevents tuberculosis—offers multiple beneficial effects, and it's currently a recommended therapy for non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. In a new study, treatment with the BCG vaccine was associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Although previous research has suggested a link between the BCG vaccine and a lower risk of dementia, studies were limited by size, study design, or analytical methods. To conduct a more robust study, Marc Weinberg, MD, Ph.D., and colleagues followed 6,467 individuals for up to 15 years after they were diagnosed with non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The group included 3,388...

Cedars-Sinai Research Raises Possibility That a Century-Old Vaccine May Be Useful Against Coronavirus A widely used tuberculosis vaccine is associated with reduced likelihood of contracting COVID-19 (coronavirus), according to a new study by Cedars-Sinai. The findings raise the possibility that a vaccine already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may help prevent coronavirus infections or reduce severity of the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), was developed between1908 and 1921 and is administered to more than 100 million children around the world every year. In the U.S., it is FDA-approved as a drug to treat bladder...

https://knowledgeofhealth.com/if-must-vaccinate-against-covid19-proven-vaccine/ BCG vaccine discussion

The World Health Organization says no evidence supports using BCG to fight pandemic. Some Israeli biologists beg to differ — after studying stats for 63% of world’s population A vaccine that has been in use for almost a century limits the spread and severity of coronavirus, Israeli biologists have claimed after studying data from almost two thirds of the world’s population. As they champion the bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, they are going head-to-head with the World Health Organization. They argue that three decades after many countries — Israel included — phased out blanket BCG shots, they should consider restoring them to...

Coronavirus death rates are nearly six times lower in countries that use a nearly century-old tuberculosis vaccine, a new study found. The study, conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found that the COVID-19 mortality rate among countries that use the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination was 5.8 times lower than in those that do not.

Researchers in four countries will soon start a clinical trial of an unorthodox approach to the new coronavirus. They will test whether a century-old vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), a bacterial disease, can rev up the human immune system in a broad way, allowing it to better fight the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 and, perhaps, prevent infection with it altogether. The studies will be done in physicians and nurses, who are at higher risk of becoming infected with the respiratory disease than the general population, and in the elderly, who are at higher risk of serious illness if they...

Global Update The vaccine against tuberculosis that is routinely given to 75 percent of the world’s infants is too risky to give to those born infected with the AIDS virus, says a new study published by the World Health Organization. It recommended that vaccination be delayed until babies can be tested. The Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine, known as BCG, protects children well against deadly tuberculous meningitis, though it does less well against the lung form. It has been in use since 1921, and children in many countries — though not the United States, which never adopted it — bear its characteristic...