Correlation between COVID-19 case fatality rate and percentage of BCG vaccination: is it true the vaccine is protective?

Mohamed Hussein, Aliae A. R.; Salem, Marwa Rashad; Salman, Samar; Abdulrahim, A F; Al Massry, Nasrallah A.; Saad, Mahmoud; Dahman, Nesrine Ben Hadj; Negida, Ahmed

BACKGROUND: The observations of some recent epidemiological studies offer hope for a reduced impact of COVID-19 for countries which practice universal BCG vaccination policy. MAIN BODY: This report provides a correlation between the case fatality rates of COVID-19 and the percentage of BCG vaccination coverage in 183 most affected countries. The main objective of this observational ecologic report is to evaluate possible effects of the previous BCG vaccination in different populations and the epidemic outcomes specially the rates of severe/critical cases and case fatalities. The analysis is preliminary since it is based on constantly rolling data while the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding. CONCLUSION: Our findings seem to support the fact that an older BCG vaccine may have a protective role in avoiding severe/critical SARS-CoV2 pneumonia and relatively decrease its fatalities.