Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Could Old Vaccines for Other Germs Protect Against COVID-19?
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
April 14, 2020

Share

WASHINGTON — 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.

“This is still a hypothesis, it could be a very important tool to bridge this dangerous period until we have on the market a proper, specific vaccine.” — Dr. Mihai Netea of Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands

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.

Possibly Next in Line

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 U.S.

Possibly next in line: Oral polio vaccine, drops made of live but weakened polio viruses. The Baltimore-based Global Virus Network hopes to begin similar studies with that vaccine and is in talks with health authorities, network co-founder Dr. Robert Gallo told The Associated Press.

Rapid studies are needed to tell if there could be “long-ranging effects for any second wave of this,” said Gallo, who directs the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

At the U.S. National Institutes of Health, researchers are in early discussions about proposals to study the TB and polio vaccines as a possible COVID-19 defense, said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Routh.

There’s a big caution: Live vaccines are risky for people with weakened immune systems, and shouldn’t be tried against COVID-19 outside of a research trial, said Dr. Denise Faustman, immunobiology chief at Massachusetts General Hospital, who is planning a TB vaccine study.

“You can’t just roll it out,” she stressed. But, “it’s kind of an amazing opportunity to prove or disprove this off-target effect.”

Photo of tuberculosis vaccines in 1947
FILE – This March 1931 file photo shows ampules of the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis in a laboratory at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, France. Dec. 2, 1947 file photo. Scientists are dusting off some decades-old vaccines against TB and polio to see if they could provide stopgap protection against COVID-19 until a more precise shot arrives. (AP Photo/Alfred Eisenstaedt)

The First Clues

Years ago, scientists began noticing with several live vaccines what Dr. Victor Nizet, an immune expert at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, calls “an important curiosity that people have been interested in trying to harness.”

What about oral polio vaccine? Those clues emerged first from the former Soviet Union, said Konstantin Chumakov, a vaccine specialist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who stressed he was not speaking on behalf of the FDA. His mother was a Soviet scientist who in the 1970s published research showing flu cases dropped markedly after oral polio vaccination.

BCG is given mostly to newborns in developing countries, and it offers only partial protection against TB, a bacterial infection. But observational studies showed during childhood, the vaccinated tots had better overall survival, including from respiratory viruses.

In 2018, Netea’s team published a more direct test. They showed BCG stimulates initial immune defenses enough that it at least partly blocked another virus given experimentally a month later.

What about oral polio vaccine? Those clues emerged first from the former Soviet Union, said Konstantin Chumakov, a vaccine specialist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who stressed he was not speaking on behalf of the FDA. His mother was a Soviet scientist who in the 1970s published research showing flu cases dropped markedly after oral polio vaccination.

In 2015, Danish researchers also found some hints of cross-protection after oral polio vaccinations. The oral drops still are used in developing countries while the U.S. and other areas that have eliminated polio use the inactivated shot for routine childhood vaccines.

Different Kinds of Immunity

There are overlapping types of immune defenses. The usual goal of a vaccine is to prime the body to recognize a specific health threat and make antibodies able to fight back when that particular bug comes along.

But that takes time. So at the first sign of infection, a first line of foot soldiers — white blood cells — springs into action to fend off the invader in other ways, what’s called innate immunity. If they fail, then the body creates its more targeted special forces to join the fight.

BCG appears to be reprogramming innate immune cells so they can more readily eliminate the germ up front, said Netea, the Dutch researcher.

Scientists not involved in the effort to try these vaccines against COVID-19 say it’s worthwhile to test.

“The scientific rationale I think is quite logical,” said Nizet, the UC-San Diego immune specialist. “The unknown is whether coronaviruses are in the spectrum of things that are efficiently protected” by that first-line innate immunity.

Some scientists have theorized that countries with large BCG-vaccinated populations might fare better in the pandemic. But given problems with accurately counting the toll, it’s far too early to draw any conclusions, a caution the WHO reiterated Monday.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

DON'T MISS

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

DON'T MISS

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

DON'T MISS

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

DON'T MISS

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

DON'T MISS

Music Legend Quincy Jones, Architect of Pop’s Greatest Hits, Dies at 91

DON'T MISS

Big Pharma Backs Harris 6-to-1 Over Trump in Presidential Campaign Contributions

DON'T MISS

Sanger Men Arrested in Connection with Slingshot Vandalism Spree at Businesses

DON'T MISS

What Is Sierra Unified’s Plan to Boost Lagging Student Achievement?

UP NEXT

North Korea’s Long-Range Missile Test Signals Its Improved, Potential Capability to Attack US

UP NEXT

Visalia Rollerblader Suffered Major Injuries After Being Struck by Vehicle

UP NEXT

Fresno County Man Indicted for Possessing Stolen Guns

UP NEXT

On Elon Musk’s X, Dems Are an Endangered Species While GOP Goes Viral

UP NEXT

New Vehicles, Face Paint and a 1,200-Foot Fall: The US Army Prepares for War With China

UP NEXT

CNN Bars Pro-Trump Guest After His ‘Beeper’ Remark to Mehdi Hasan

UP NEXT

LGBTQ Supporters Drown Out Westboro Baptists’ Anti-Gay Message in Fresno

UP NEXT

The ‘Black Insurrectionist’ Was Actually White. The Deception Did Not Stop There

UP NEXT

Washington Post Says It Will Stop Endorsing Presidential Candidates

UP NEXT

What Happened When a Barber Told Trump About His $15,000 Electric Bill

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

1 hour ago

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

1 hour ago

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

2 hours ago

Music Legend Quincy Jones, Architect of Pop’s Greatest Hits, Dies at 91

2 hours ago

Big Pharma Backs Harris 6-to-1 Over Trump in Presidential Campaign Contributions

3 hours ago

Sanger Men Arrested in Connection with Slingshot Vandalism Spree at Businesses

3 hours ago

What Is Sierra Unified’s Plan to Boost Lagging Student Achievement?

3 hours ago

Musk PAC Tells Philadelphia Judge the $1 Million Sweepstakes Winners Are Not Chosen by Chance

4 hours ago

Bass’ Record 61-Yard Field Goal Lifts Bills Over Dolphins in Thriller

4 hours ago

Big Spenders: These Companies Are Giving the Most to California Legislative Candidates

4 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

Elon Musk’s X has been modified so that accounts you’ve blocked on the social media platform can still see your public posts. X ...

12 mins ago

12 mins ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

18 mins ago

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

Gerrick Franklin (pictured), 34, was taken into custody Sunday in Madera County on suspicion of killing Tyler Hamon, 33. (Fresno PD)
50 mins ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

1 hour ago

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, on stage during a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. Trump told supporters on Sunday that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House at the end of his term during an end-of-campaign rally where he vented angrily about a spate of new public polls showing him losing ground to Vice President Kamala Harris and joked about reporters being shot at. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
1 hour ago

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

2 hours ago

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

2 hours ago

Music Legend Quincy Jones, Architect of Pop’s Greatest Hits, Dies at 91

3 hours ago

Big Pharma Backs Harris 6-to-1 Over Trump in Presidential Campaign Contributions

Search

Send this to a friend