Finally they started a human trial using a 100 year old tuberculosis vaccine: https://www.orissapost.com/texas-am-university-starts-human-trials-of-bcg-vaccine-to-fight-covid-19/ Most people in the East got this as a child and apparently judging by the numbers even after decades it provides some short of immunity to COVID-19. One of the easiest way to see the difference is to compare East and West Germany"s spread of the virus. "the wholesale price was US$0.16 to US$1.11 a dose in the developing world. In the United States it costs US$100 to US$200."
The WHO says there is no evidence that BCG prevents COVID-19 infection. Sure, nobody actually claimed that. What we are seeing though that people vaccinated with BCG are having a much easier time when they get the virus. "Dozens of countries, including Japan and China, require children — typically newborns — to receive the BCG vaccine as protection against tuberculosis, an infection that is typically more common in lower-income countries. Other countries, such as Spain, France and Switzerland, used to require the vaccine but stopped because the risk of catching the disease in those countries lessened, according to one of the preprint studies published in medRxiv on March 28. Other countries, such as the U.S., Italy and the Netherlands never had such a universal vaccine policy for the BCG vaccine." Anybody recognizes those countries with the highest infection rates? "But scientists have long known that "almost by lucky accident," the BCG vaccine doesn't just protect against tuberculosis, it also helps fight other viruses, respiratory infections in particular, Cannon said. The vaccine, "in some sort of unexpected and magical way, is like a broad immune booster," she said." "there seemed to be a correlation between countries that require BCG vaccines and a reduced spread and severity of COVID-19 cases. For example, Portugal — which has required BCG vaccines for infants — has over 16,000 cases of COVID-19 but only 535 deaths whereas neighboring Spain has over 169,000 cases and over 17,000 deaths. Similarly, Ireland, with 9,655 cases and only 334 deaths, requires the BCG vaccination, whereas the U.K. with 89,554 cases and 11,346 deaths no longer does. Based on these numbers, Ireland has a fatality rate 3.5% whereas the U.K. has a fatality rate of 12.7%." https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-protection-using-tuberculosis-vaccine.html Booster shots for the win!: "The second study, which also has not been peer-reviewed, analyzed how countries with re-vaccination policies — or booster shots — fared in the COVID-19 pandemic. That study found that countries without re-vaccination policies had a 5.2% case fatality rate, versus a0.6% case fatality rate in countries that required re-vaccination."