For the past several months, Abundance Foundation has been working to support research about the BCG vaccine with Harvard global health researcher and Chief Abundance Partner, Dr. Megan Murray. We have long believed in the potential of the vaccine to be beneficial in the fight against Coronavirus, and for the past several months, we have supported research investigating the Tokyo-172 strain of the BCG vaccine in nursing home residents. The Taiwan arm of Dr. Murray’s multi-country study will begin in August. We anticipate the United States arm will begin shortly thereafter.
Recent news articles on the issue highlight the global conversation around the vaccine and its promise. As the article states, further research, like the work that Dr. Murray spearheads, is needed. An excerpt:
“A tuberculosis vaccine may help reduce the risk of death from COVID-19, researchers suggest.
Developing countries have lower-than-expected COVID-19 death rates, and a TB vaccine given in countries with high rates of tuberculosis might play a significant role in reducing COVID-19 death rates, according to authors of a new study.
The vaccine, which is routinely given to children in countries where TB infection is common, is called Bacille Calmette-Guérin, or BCG for short. It is not widely used in the United States.
“In our initial research, we found that countries with high rates of BCG vaccinations had lower rates of mortality,” said Luis Escobar, an assistant professor in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech.”
You can read more of the article here.
Abundance Foundation is proud to remain on the frontlines of this work, along with our partners at Harvard and beyond. For more information about Dr. Murray’s research on the BCG vaccine, please watch the video below, featuring Abundance Foundation’s President Stephen Kahn and Dr. Murray in conversation about this groundbreaking work.