Effectiveness of booster BCG vaccination in preventing Covid-19 infection
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.10.20172288: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: After approval by the hospital review board and ethics committee, a retrospective cohort study of the entire hospital personnel was done and they were divided into two groups: those who received the BCG booster vaccine in March (group A), and those that did not (group B). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences …SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.10.20172288: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: After approval by the hospital review board and ethics committee, a retrospective cohort study of the entire hospital personnel was done and they were divided into two groups: those who received the BCG booster vaccine in March (group A), and those that did not (group B). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:The limitations of our study are several, such as lack of clear understanding and documentation of any confounding factors between the two groups that could have influenced the transmission and infection rate, sample size, and discrepancy between the number of subjects in the two group. Staff comorbidity as well as any over the counter supplements that the staff could have taken in attempts to prevent Covid-19 infection was not documented. Despite the limitations of this study, we feel that our findings of 8.6% versus zero percent infection rate is significant enough to suggest the promising effectiveness of an up-to-date BCG booster vaccine in prevention of Covid-19 infection and therefore warrants reporting. It is important to note that despite the statistically significant clinical evidence presented here, disregarding the study limitations and recommending mass BCG vaccination before prospective trials is an overreach and could create a false and dangerous sense of confidence in vaccine recipients. The health authority in many countries have recommended a booster BCG vaccine to prevent TB infection11. Some physicians may consider providing voluntary booster BCG vaccination, especially in areas of substantial Covid-19 outbreak in which tuberculosis is already prevalent. If such decision is made, it should be in accordance to the local ethical medical practice principles, with full disclosure of treatment and preventative options, short term and long term side effects and w...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.10.20172288: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Methodology : After approval by the hospital review board and ethics committee, a retrospective cohort study of the entire hospital personnel was done and they were divided into two groups: those who received the BCG booster vaccine in March (group A), and those that did not (group B). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.10.20172288: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Methodology : After approval by the hospital review board and ethics committee, a retrospective cohort study of the entire hospital personnel was done and they were divided into two groups: those who received the BCG booster vaccine in March (group A), and those that did not (group B). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
The limitations of our study are several, such as lack of clear understanding and documentation of any confounding factors between the two groups that could have influenced the transmission and infection rate, sample size, and discrepancy between the number of subjects in the two group. Staff comorbidity as well as any over the counter supplements that the staff could have taken in attempts to prevent Covid-19 infection was not documented. Despite the limitations of this study, we feel that our findings of 8.6% versus zero percent infection rate is significant enough to suggest the promising effectiveness of an up-to-date BCG booster vaccine in prevention of Covid19 infection and therefore warrants reporting. It is important to note that despite the statistically significant clinical evidence presented here, disregarding the study limitations and recommending mass BCG vaccination before prospective trials is an overreach and could create a false and dangerous sense of confidence in vaccine recipients. The health authority in many countries have recommended a booster BCG vaccine to prevent TB infection11. Some physicians may consider providing voluntary booster BCG vaccination, especially in areas of substantial Covid-19 outbreak in which tuberculosis is already prevalent. If such decision is made, it should be in accordance to the local ethical medical practice principles, with full disclosure of treatment and preventative options, short term and long term side effects and without misleading or deceptive promises made to patients. Adverse effects of BCG vaccine are rare local reactions that are temporary, and extremely rare serious complication of disseminated BCG infection. BCG vaccination should not be given during pregnancy, to persons who are immunosuppressed, or who are likely to become immunocompromised 12.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
About SciScore
SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.
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