{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,27]],"date-time":"2025-10-27T20:51:07Z","timestamp":1761598267984,"version":"3.40.5"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]],"date-time":"2020-12-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1607904000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":13,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J. Intern. Med."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>The COVID\u201019 pandemic has affected most parts of the global society since its emergence, and the scientific community has been challenged with questions urgently demanding answers. One of the early hypotheses on COVID\u201019 outcome was that some protection could be offered by the tuberculosis vaccine (BCG), and several clinical studies were initiated along with the emergence of numerous observational studies on the relationship between BCG and COVID\u201019 severity. In the present work, I demonstrate a strong correlation between the number of years that countries implemented BCG vaccination plans and age\u2010standardized mortality rates during the first months of the pandemic in Europe. Further analyses of age groups in two European countries with comparably few confounding factors and easily identifiable groups of BCG\u2010vaccinated and non\u2010vaccinated subgroups suggest a population\u2010level effect of BCG on national outcomes of COVID\u201019. This phenomenon of \u2018heterologous herd immunity\u2019 deserves further investigation, both in epidemiological and experimental studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/joim.13198","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,27]],"date-time":"2020-10-27T18:57:48Z","timestamp":1603825068000},"page":"682-688","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["On the relationship between BCG coverage and national COVID\u201019 outcome: could \u2018heterologous\u2019 herd immunity explain why some countries are better off?"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"288","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5092-9892","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"M.","family":"Lerm","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"From the Division of Inflammation and Infection Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Link\u00f6ping University Link\u00f6ping Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_9_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41564-020-0771-4"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1473-3099(20)30287-5"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S2213-2600(20)30316-7"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41591-020-0968-3"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1084\/jem.20200652"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_7_1","first-page":"e925974","article-title":"Clinical characteristics and risk factors of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID\u201019 patients in Beijing, China: A Retrospective Study","volume":"26","author":"Aibin W","year":"2020","journal-title":"Med Sci Monit"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2020.08.017"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"AllelK Tapia\u2010Mu\u00f1ozT MorrisW.Country\u2010level factors associated with the early spread of COVID\u201019 cases at 5 10 and 15 days since the onset. 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