About the BCG-Corona saliva study
Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination has been hypothesized to reduce severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, severity, and/or duration via trained immunity induction.
Health care workers (HCWs) in nine Dutch hospitals were randomized to BCG or placebo vaccination (1:1) in March and April 2020 and followed for 1 year. They reported daily symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 test results, and health care-seeking behavior via a smartphone application, and they donated blood (in all hospitals) and saliva (in three hospitals) for SARS-CoV-2 serology and antibody assays at two time points.
The BCG-Corona saliva study team
Substudy principal investigators
and primary affiliations
Dr. Lilly Verhagen
(Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
Prof. Marien de Jonge
(Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
Parent study team
Drs. Juana Claus
Dr. Thijs ten Doesschate
Drs. Cheyenne Gumbs
Dr. Cornelis van Werkhoven
Drs. Thomas van der Vaart
Dr. Axel Janssen
Gaby Smits
Rob van Binnendijk
Dr. Fiona van der Klis
Prof. Debbie van Baarle
Dr. Fernanda Paganelli
Dr. Helen Leavis
Dr. Lilly Verhagen
Dr. Simone Joosten
Prof. Marc Bonten
Prof. Mihai Netea
Prof. Janneke van de Wijgert
Related publications
- J Claus, T ten Doesschate, C Gumbs, CH van Werkhoven, TW van der Vaart, AB Janssen, G Smits, R van Binnendijk, F van der Klis, D van Baarle, FL Paganelli, H Leavis, LM Verhagen, SA Joosten, MJM Bonten, MG Netea, JHHM van de Wijgert. BCG vaccination of health care workers does not reduce SARS-CoV-2 infections nor infection severity or duration: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. mBio 2023;e0035623.
Project funding
