Coronavirus infections may be less severe in people who have recently had the BCG vaccination, according to scientists who are now trialling the vaccine on healthcare workers.
The vaccine was first used in 1921 and protects against tuberculosis (TB) infection, which is now an uncommon disease in the developed world.Scientific studies have since noted that children given the BCG vaccine were also less likely to die from other diseases, including pneumonia, the BBC reports.
An NHS GP is now part of a trial of 1,000 British people who will be injected with a new dose of the vaccine to see if it reduces the severity of coronavirus symptoms.