Aussie team to trial TB vaccine against COVID-19
Researchers from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne will test the BCG vaccine in 4000 hospital workers
New Australian research will explore whether the tuberculosis BCG vaccine could help protect doctors from COVID-19 and future pandemic viruses.
Researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), in Melbourne, are about to start a randomised controlled trial (BRACE) involving 4000 hospital-based healthcare workers.
They will be monitored to see if they develop COVID-19, to help determine whether the vaccine helps prevent infection or reduce the severity of disease. It will not replace a future COVID-19 vaccine.
The research will focus on the off-target effects of the vaccine, says Professor Nigel Curtis, leader of the MCRI Infectious Disease Research Group.
