ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COVID-19 disease, P., Erasmus, TTxD., CWZ Nijmegen
FRANK, FOUNDER
We thank the health care workers for their participation, Katina Kardaminidis for trial management, Frank Leus and Roxanne Schaakx for data management, and all other colleagues in the participating hospitals who implemented the BCG-Corona trial, and the sample collection and testing, under difficult circumstances. The original BCG-Corona trial was not externally funded. The additional work included in this publication is part of the project “BCG vaccination to minimize COVID-19 disease severity and duration” with project number 10430 01 201 0026 of the research program COVID-19 which is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw). M.G.N. was also funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (833247) and Spinoza grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). L.M.V. was also funded by a Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital (Utrecht) grant and a Hypatia Tenure Track grant of the Radboud University Medical Center (Nijmegen). The funders did not have any role in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.V.J.H.H.M.V.D.W., T.T.D., D.V.B., F.L.P., and M.G.N. designed and obtained funding for the study. J.H.H.M.V.D.W. supervised the data collection, analysis, and paper-writing. J.C., T.T.D., C.G., T.W.V.D.V., and A.B.J. contributed to the data collection. G.S., R.V.B., and F.V.D.K. conducted the antibody testing and D.V.B., L.M.V., and S.A.J. provided additional immunological expertise. J.C., T.T.D., C.G., and C.H.V.W. contributed to the data analyses. J.C. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. The additional members of the BCG-Corona study group contributed to the original BCG-Corona trial or other aspects of the ZonMw project (see Funding). All authors read and approved the final version. J.C. and J.H.H.M.V.D.W. had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.C.H.V.W. reports research grants from DaVolterra, bioMérieux, and LimmaTech and consultancy fees from MSD and Sanofi-Pasteur, in the last 36 months (unrelated to the work in the manuscript, payments to institution). H.L. reports a research grant from Takeda, and consultancy fees from Takeda, Sobi, Novartis, and GSK, in the last 36 months (unrelated to the work in the manuscript, payments to institution). L.M.V. reports consulting fees from MSD in the last 36 months (unrelated to the work in the manuscript, payments to institution). M.J.M.B. reports research grants from Janssen Vaccines, Novartis, CureVac, and Merck, Advisory Board memberships of Spherecydes, Pfizer, MSD, Novartis and AstraZeneca, and DSMB membership of Sanofi, in the last 36 months (unrelated to the work in the manuscript, payments to institution). M.G.N. is scientific founder and scientific advisory board member of Trained Therapeutix Discovery (TTxD) and scientific founder of Lemba Therapeutics, has obtained research grants from GSK Biologicals, TTxD, and Ono Pharma, and consultancy fees from TTxD. J.H.H.M.V.D.W. reports payments for meeting attendance from the Dutch Ministry of Health and Sports and the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) in the last 36 months (unrelated to the work in the manuscript, payments to institution). All other authors declare no competing interests.In addition to the writing team, the BCG-Corona study group also includes (in alphabetical order): Wim G. Boersma (NWZ Alkmaar), Özlem Bulut (Radboud), Reinout van Crevel (Radboud), Priya A. Debisarun (Radboud), Jacobien Hoogerwerf (Radboud), Marien de Jonge (Radboud), Angele P. M. Kerckhoffs (JBZ Den Bosch), Edward Knol (UMC Utrecht), Jan Pieter R. Koopman (Leiden UMC), Vincent P. Kuiper (Leiden UMC), Arief Lalmohamed (UMC Utrecht), Simone J. C. F. M. Moorlag (Radboud), Stefan Nierkens (UMC Utrecht), Cees van Nieuwkoop (HZ Den Haag), Jaap 10 Oever (Radboud), Tom H. M. Ottenhoff (Leiden UMC), Nienke Paternotte (NWZ Alkmaar), Bart J. A. Rijnders (Erasmus MC), Anna H. E. Roukens (Leiden UMC), Esther Taks (Radboud), Janetta Top (UMC Utrecht), Karin M. Veerman (Radboud), Andreas Voss (CWZ Nijmegen), and Rob Willems (UMC Utrecht).