Though, its too early to predict but I DO hope, not too early.. Hopefully, we will be able to confirm it's effectiveness in few months.. possibly.. in weeks.. I see good enough momentum and off the late, this topic is trending in scientific/medical community.
It seems that BCG vaccination which is given to more than 100 million+ babies every year mostly in developing world as safeguard for Tuberculosis (TB). Some Developed world countries like Japan and Korea also still administer it. Most of the anecdotal evidence points that this is what helping many of these countries to be less impacted by Coronavirus.. Otherwise, I was so much worried by the impact it could make on densely populated country like India..
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tbvaccine-explaine-idUSKBN21K372
Just to be cautious, there is some contrary evidence about this as well. There are many Western countries, where Coronavirus is very prevalent and creating havoc despite BCG vaccination is/was administered to most of the population. I think, France is one such example.
Multiple trials in different part of the world are going on. One is Australia and another one in Netherlands. This NY Times article summarizes it best..
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/health/coronavirus-bcg-vaccine.html?
Good news is that it is almost century old tried and tested vaccine. We know about it's pros and cons very well. Obviously, it can't be used as treatment to patients who already got it. and there are some restrictions on who all can get it. Still, I believe, more than 95% of the population could be eligible for it. If it can definitively proof that it can help, it would be great for all of us.
Though, there are some talks about this creating shortage of immunization for kids in developing world. I hope, we can ramp up supplies and it would be short blip.
We need some kind of short/medium term solution/workaround for this pandemic before we come up with real vaccine. Otherwise, we can't be expected to stay in our houses for next year or two. That would be worse than getting infected by virus itself. Not only that, this solution could potentially get many of us (if it proves its effectiveness) immediately out in workforce normalizing economy, and potentially helping other patients..
It seems that BCG vaccination which is given to more than 100 million+ babies every year mostly in developing world as safeguard for Tuberculosis (TB). Some Developed world countries like Japan and Korea also still administer it. Most of the anecdotal evidence points that this is what helping many of these countries to be less impacted by Coronavirus.. Otherwise, I was so much worried by the impact it could make on densely populated country like India..
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tbvaccine-explaine-idUSKBN21K372
Just to be cautious, there is some contrary evidence about this as well. There are many Western countries, where Coronavirus is very prevalent and creating havoc despite BCG vaccination is/was administered to most of the population. I think, France is one such example.
Multiple trials in different part of the world are going on. One is Australia and another one in Netherlands. This NY Times article summarizes it best..
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/health/coronavirus-bcg-vaccine.html?
Good news is that it is almost century old tried and tested vaccine. We know about it's pros and cons very well. Obviously, it can't be used as treatment to patients who already got it. and there are some restrictions on who all can get it. Still, I believe, more than 95% of the population could be eligible for it. If it can definitively proof that it can help, it would be great for all of us.
Though, there are some talks about this creating shortage of immunization for kids in developing world. I hope, we can ramp up supplies and it would be short blip.
We need some kind of short/medium term solution/workaround for this pandemic before we come up with real vaccine. Otherwise, we can't be expected to stay in our houses for next year or two. That would be worse than getting infected by virus itself. Not only that, this solution could potentially get many of us (if it proves its effectiveness) immediately out in workforce normalizing economy, and potentially helping other patients..
