'BCG vaccine no defence against Covid-19'

In a Facebook post on Friday (May 15), Dr Yong Poovorawan, a Chulalongkorn University virologist, said there were rumours that Asian people who had been vaccinated with BCG vaccine, which is used against tuberculosis, had a lower chance of getting infected with Covid-19 compared to European people.
He explained that Israel had administered BCG vaccination to newborn babies until 1982.
“According to the study of Covid-19 infection rate in Israelis who were born before and after 1982, the infection rate of people who had been vaccinated was 11.7 per cent, while for people who were not vaccinated it was 10.4 per cent. The death rate was one person per group,” he said.
“Therefore, BCG vaccine cannot protect people from Covid-19 disease,” he said.