NEWS BRIEFING: BCG vaccine’s lack of protection against COVID-19 highlights importance of trials even during a pandemic

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-04-27 07:00

Australia; VIC; SA

MCRI nurse Kate Wall giving the BCG vaccine to a MCRI healthcare worker

*BRIEFING RECORDING AVAILABLE* A Murdoch Children’s Research Institute-led international trial into the immune-boosting benefits of the tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, BCG, has found it does not protect healthcare workers against COVID-19. The BRACE trial investigated whether the vaccine could reduce the impact of COVID-19 among healthcare workers on the pandemic frontline in the first six months after vaccination across five different countries, including Australia, but found it didn’t reduce the risk. In fact, a slightly higher proportion of those who received the vaccine had an episode of COVID-19 than those who received a non-active placebo jab. Join us for this online media briefing, when Murdoch Children’s and the University of Melbourne’s Professor Nigel Curtis, Chief Principal Investigator of BRACE, will discuss the trial.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

NEWS BRIEFING: BCG vaccine’s lack of protection against COVID-19 highlights importance of trials even during a pandemic

A Murdoch Children’s Research Institute-led international trial into the immune boosting benefits of the tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, BCG, has found it does not protect healthcare workers against COVID-19

The BRACE trial investigated whether the vaccine could reduce the impact of COVID-19 among healthcare workers on the pandemic frontline in the first six months after vaccination across five different countries, including Australia, but found it didn’t reduce the risk.

In fact, a slightly higher proportion of those who received the vaccine had an episode of COVID-19 than those who received a non-active placebo jab.

The BCG jab was originally developed to prevent TB and is still given to over 130 million babies worldwide each year for that purpose.

Previous research showed BCG boosted ‘front-line’ immunity in infants and protected against some respiratory infections in adolescents and adults, which was the rationale for testing it against COVID-19 in the BRACE trial. It was hoped the vaccine could be repurposed to buy crucial time in a pandemic such as COVID-19 until disease-specific vaccines were available.

The research will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Join us for this online briefing, when Murdoch Children’s and the University of Melbourne’s Professor Nigel Curtis, Chief Principal Investigator of BRACE, will discuss the trial, its results and what this means for the future of repurposing existing vaccines and drugs when new threats arise.

Speakers:

Professor Nigel Curtis from MCRI and the University of Melbourne, Chief Principal Investigator of BRACE

JOIN THE BRIEFING:

Date: Wed 26 April 2023
Start Time: 10:00 am AEST
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online - Zoom

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research Massachusetts Medical Society, Web page New England Journal of Medicine paper. The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: New England Journal of Medicine

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), The University of Melbourne, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Telethon Kids Institute, Flinders University, University of Sydney, UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands, University of Exeter, UK, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil

Funder: The trial is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (INV- 017302), the Minderoo Foundation (COV- 001), Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch, The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation (2020-1263 BRACE Trial), Health Services Union NSW, the Peter Sowerby Foundation, the Ministry of Health Government of South Australia, UK Peter Sowerby Foundation, the NAB Foundation, the Calvert-Jones Foundation, the Modara Pines Charitable Foundation, the UHG Foundation Pty Ltd, Epworth Healthcare and individual donors. The BRACE trial is supported by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Programme. L.F.P. is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Early Postdoc Mobility Grant, P2GEP3_178155). P.V. is supported by the Australian Government Research Training Programme Scholarship provided by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the University of Melbourne, and a Murdoch Children’s Ph.D. Top-Up Scholarship. N.C. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant (GNT1197117).

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.