4,000 Aussie health care workers will take part in a six-month global trial to test the effectiveness of a tuberculosis vaccine to counter the symptoms of coronavirus.
Professor Nigel Curtis from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute says besides combating tuberculosis, the vaccine boosts the body’s immune system, reducing the symptoms of coronavirus.
In comments reported by 7 News, Professor Curtis said:
“It’s really the first time the vaccine has been used in this way,” Prof Curtis said.
“The vaccine has the ability to ‘train’ the immune system to respond more strongly to infection.”
“This has really alerted to the world that we are always just a few weeks away from a pandemic,” Prof Curtis said.
“Even if we make a vaccine against this particular virus, if a different one pops up, it’s very good for us to have an off-the-shelf vaccine that works against the number of different viruses.”
“If I didn’t think (the tuberculosis vaccine) would work, I wouldn’t have been here seven days a week for the last month with a team of 20 people,” he said.
