A vaccine to stop coronavirus may be months or even several years absent, but a staff of scientists in the US say an everyday vaccine that is readily available now might be used to enable avert the worst outcomes of coronavirus infection.

They are proposing giving a booster dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to people today to see if it ramps up immunity in normal, probably assisting reduce some of the most critical consequences of Covid-19.

Their wondering: The MMR vaccine is known to defend young ones towards bacterial infections that go far past the 3 viruses specific by the vaccine. The principle is that the vaccine boosts typical immunity, in addition to instruction the physique to identify unique viruses.

The MMR vaccine is what’s regarded as a dwell vaccine. It takes advantage of highly weakened, or attenuated, versions of the measles, mumps and rubella viruses to deliver immune safety without building people unwell. Since it makes use of total viruses, it stimulates an immune response that is broad and goes over and above the output of antibodies.

“A clinical demo with MMR in superior-hazard populations may perhaps offer a ‘low-risk–high-reward’ preventive measure in conserving lives for the duration of this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic,” they wrote. There’s no severe chance to providing the vaccine to most people today and the strategy may be particularly productive for protecting well being care workers, they said.

“If we’re erroneous, well, at least individuals will have new antibodies to measles, mumps and rubella. So there’s no hurt, no foul,” Fidel instructed CNN.

“We emphasize this is strictly a preventive measure in opposition to the worst inflammatory sequelae of COVID-19 for those uncovered/contaminated and does not represent an antiviral therapy or vaccine in opposition to COVID-19 in any way,” Fidel and Noverr added in their letter.