While the studies for the treatment and vaccination of the coronavirus are continuing, scientists are trying to reveal the weaknesses of the disease by comparing the coronavirus data. A new study shows that in countries where tuberculosis vaccine continues to be administered, mortality rates are much lower than in other countries. Tuberculosis vaccine was found 100 years ago. It is already known that tuberculosis vaccine, which is immune to tuberculosis, a bacterial infection disease, has other benefits. It has been determined by previous studies that the effect of tuberculosis vaccine, which also provides immunity against respiratory diseases, continues for 60 years. Could the tuberculosis vaccine really reduce coronavirus deaths? Researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, John Hopkins University, tried to find the change in coronavirus mortality rates using data from countries’ income levels and populations in their population. The researchers who added the variables that would change these two factors to the data group examined the coronavirus mortality rates for each million people. The researchers realized that after bringing together the economic status of countries, the proportion of the elderly population and the locations where the epidemic was most common, there was a significant relationship between tuberculosis use and low coronavirus mortality rates. Scientists’ study found that the number of coronavirus deaths in countries that are still regularly receiving tuberculosis vaccination is much lower than in countries that do not regularly apply tuberculosis vaccine. It has been observed that the number of coronavirus-induced dead cases per 1 million people in countries administering tuberculosis vaccine is 5.8 times less than countries not administering tuberculosis vaccine. Coronavirus mortality rates vary depending on the income status of countries The researchers compared the mortality rates according to the wealth of the countries in the study where they examined the effect of tuberculosis vaccine against the coronavirus. In the study, it was determined that the mortality rates of high-income countries are much higher than other countries. In the study comparing the death rates per million people, it was determined that the mortality rate in low-middle income countries was 0.4, 0.65 in upper middle income countries and 5.5 in high income countries. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University cannot explain the reason for this outcome of the study. Researchers point to other studies linking respiratory diseases deaths and countries with low socio-demographic and economic income to understand the results. As the main result of their work, the researchers say that countries’ income levels and coronavirus mortality rates reversed, and the ecological relationship between tuberculosis vaccine and coronavirus deaths is interesting. The work of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has not yet gone through a referee process. For this reason, the study was presented in the medrxiv.org article archive instead of a refereed journal. Other scientists are also working to understand the impact of tuberculosis vaccine against the coronavirus. A tuberculosis vaccine started in Australia, covering 4,000 healthcare professionals. Researchers think that with the vaccination of tuberculosis, the innate immunity of healthcare workers will increase and time will be gained for treatment and development of the vaccine.
