BCG Vaccine does not Protect Against COVID-19

Abstract

A recent article by Jop de Vrieze (March 23, 2020) suggested that BCG vaccine could protect against COVID-19 infections. The arguments were that several European countries, like Italy, Spain, France, and Germany, which are badly affected by COVID-19, and the USA stopped vaccination of the general population by BCG and excluded it from their routine vaccination schedule. Many people started to receive doses of BCG based on that hypothesis even before its confirmation. We think that the BCG vaccine could not protect against COVID-19 because several countries like China and Iran, which are severely affected by COVID-19, still include the BCG vaccine in its routine vaccination schedule. Other arguments include that the BCG vaccine improves cell-mediated immunity with little effect on humoral immunity; Immunity against viruses, in general, is mainly humoral.