Could old vaccines for other germs protect against COVID-19?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists are dusting off some decades-old vaccines against other germs to see if they could provide a little stopgap protection against COVID-19 until a more precise shot arrives.

It may sound odd: Vaccines are designed to target a specific disease.

But vaccines made using live strains of bacteria or viruses seem to boost the immune system’s first line of defense, a more general way to guard against germs.

And history books show that sometimes translates into at least some cross-protection against other, completely different bugs.

There’s no evidence yet that the approach would rev up the immune system enough to matter against the new coronavirus.

But given that a brand-new vaccine is expected to take 12 to 18 months, some researchers say it’s time to put this approach to a faster test, starting with a tuberculosis vaccine.

“This is still a hypothesis,” said Dr Mihai Netea of Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

But if it works, “it could be a very important tool to bridge this dangerous period until we have on the market a proper, specific vaccine.”

The World Health Organization issued a stern warning Monday not to use the TB vaccine against COVD-19, unless and until studies prove it works.

Already nearly 1,500 Dutch health care workers have rolled up their sleeves for one study that Netea’s team is leading.

It uses that TB vaccine, named BCG, which is made of a live but weakened bacterial cousin of the TB germ.

In Australia, researchers hope to enroll 4,000 hospital workers to test BCG, too, and 700 already have received either the TB vaccine or a dummy shot. Similar research is being planned in other countries, including the US.

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