Thread by @DellAnnaLuca

I read tweets reporting correlation between BCG vaccination (tubercolosis) and lower COVID deaths.

I'm skeptical. The correlation in the scatterplots below is absent in one and relatively low in the other two. medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

1/2

2/2 Portugal does have BCG vaccination from 1965-ongoing and low mortality but France had it 1950-2007 and the UK 1953-2005.

I do not think there is enough to warrant much optimism (but more studies are always welcome).

Did I miss anything?

3/ A great point by @21lettere: in Italy, all doctors receive BCG vaccination. And yet they fall sick of COVID-19, a lot.

(cc @dasgobardhan, @Ledchen)

4/ @aledeniz suggested looking for TBC prevalence instead. Interestingly, Portugal and Germany do seem having relatively higher prevalence than European average.

https://twitter.com/DellAnnaLuca/status/1248928649895538688?s=20

5/ This result seems interesting for the Tuberculosis pathogen also seems to sequestrate iron from blood cells.

It also seem that IL-6 is linked to resistance to both malaria and TBC and COVID.

https://twitter.com/aledeniz/status/1244351601084715012?s=20

6/ My specific competences are too limited to know whether it's a spurious correlation or not, but I'd love some expert weight in.

7/ Blood type O seems related to resistance to malaria and COVID-19 and TBC.

(cc: @aledeniz @naval)