Researchers in a handful of countries are testing a century-old tuberculosis vaccine to see if it can give a boost to the immune system to help it fight off the novel coronavirus now causing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clinical trials of the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, which was first developed in the early 1920s,are planned in Europe and Australia to see if it can help reduce the prevalence and severity of COVID-19 symptoms. 
Researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne are currently working to enroll 4,000 healthcare workers from hospitals around Australia in one study.
Today In: Science
“This trial will allow the vaccine’s effectiveness against COVID-19 symptoms to be properly tested, and may help save the lives of our heroic frontline healthcare workers,” MCRI Director Professor Kathryn North said in a release.