Version 1
: Received: 6 June 2020 / Approved: 7 June 2020 / Online: 7 June 2020 (09:25:55 CEST)
How to cite:
Klinger, D.; Blass, I.; Rappoport, N.; Linial, M. Significantly Improved COVID-19 Outcomes in Countries with Higher BCG Vaccination Coverage: A Multivariable Analysis. Preprints2020, 2020060073. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0073.v1
Klinger, D.; Blass, I.; Rappoport, N.; Linial, M. Significantly Improved COVID-19 Outcomes in Countries with Higher BCG Vaccination Coverage: A Multivariable Analysis. Preprints 2020, 2020060073. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0073.v1
Klinger, D.; Blass, I.; Rappoport, N.; Linial, M. Significantly Improved COVID-19 Outcomes in Countries with Higher BCG Vaccination Coverage: A Multivariable Analysis. Preprints2020, 2020060073. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0073.v1
APA Style
Klinger, D., Blass, I., Rappoport, N., & Linial, M. (2020). Significantly Improved COVID-19 Outcomes in Countries with Higher BCG Vaccination Coverage: A Multivariable Analysis. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0073.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Klinger, D., Nadav Rappoport and Michal Linial. 2020 "Significantly Improved COVID-19 Outcomes in Countries with Higher BCG Vaccination Coverage: A Multivariable Analysis" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0073.v1
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic that started in China has spread within 3 months to the entire globe. We tested the hypothesis that the vaccination against tuberculosis by BCG correlates with a better outcome for COVID-19 patients. Our analysis covers 55 countries complying with predetermined thresholds on the population size and number of deaths per million (DPM). We found a strong negative correlation between the years of BCG administration and the DPM along with the progress of the pandemic, corroborated by permutation tests. The results from multivariable regression tests with 23 economic, demographic, health-related, and pandemic restriction quantitative properties, substantiate the dominant contribution of BCG years to the COVID-19 outcomes. The analysis of countries according to an age-group partition reveals that the strongest correlation is attributed to the coverage in BCG vaccination of the young population (0-24 years). Furthermore, a strong correlation and statistical significance are associated with the degree of BCG coverage for the most recent 15 years, but no association was observed in these years for other broadly used vaccination protocols for measles and rubella. We propose that BCG immunization coverage, especially among the most recently vaccinated contributes to attenuation of the spread and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
