Background and objectives Because of its beneficial off‐target effects against non‐mycobacterial infectious diseases, bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination might be an accessible early intervention to boost protection against novel pathogens. Multiple epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are investigating the protective effect of BCG against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). Using samples from participants in a placebo‐controlled RCT aiming to determine whether BCG vaccination reduces the incidence and severity of COVID‐19, we investigated the immunomodulatory effects of BCG on in vitro immune responses to SARS‐CoV‐2. Methods This study used peripheral blood taken from participants in the multicentre RCT and BCG vaccination to reduce the impact of COVID‐19 on healthcare workers (BRACE trial). The whole blood taken from BRACE trial participants was stimulated with γ‐irradiated SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected or mock‐infected Vero cell supernatant. Cytokine responses were measured by multiplex cytokine analysis, and single‐cell immunophenotyping was made by flow cytometry. Results BCG vaccination, but not placebo vaccination, reduced SARS‐CoV‐2‐induced secretion of cytokines known to be associated with severe COVID‐19, including IL‐6, TNF‐α and IL‐10. In addition, BCG vaccination promoted an effector memory phenotype in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and an activation of eosinophils in response to SARS‐CoV‐2. Conclusions The immunomodulatory signature of BCG’s off‐target effects on SARS‐CoV‐2 is consistent with a protective immune response against severe COVID‐19.

There can be few people in this country who have not been impressed by the complexity of instruments and controls in the cockpit of a modern transport aircraft — if not the real thing, at least they will have seen pictures. This complexity, which the flight crew must master in their difficult and sometimes hazardous task of controlling the aircraft, is the display end of many elaborate sub‐systems going to make up the complete aircraft system, and the aircraft itself. All these sub‐systems and their components must be maintained in reliable operating condition by the aircraft maintenance engineer.

Permit WA-390-P, in Australia’s Exmouth Plateau, has been the subject of an extensive exploration drilling campaign with gas discovered in the Late Triassic Mungaroo Formation and the Cretaceous Lower Barrow Group. Characterisation of these reservoirs with 3D seismic data, well logs, core and biostratigraphic information has allowed insight and refinement to the previously established depositional models. The Mungaroo Formation comprises a thick succession (more than 2 km) of delta plain deposits characterised on 3D seismic by channel morphologies of differing sizes and orientations. Well penetrations in the channels reveal sand-bodies that can be classified as either single-storey or multistorey. Single-storey sand-bodies are thin (less than 15 metres), narrow in planform (less than one kilometer), lack evidence of lateral accretion and occasionally exhibit a funnel geometry. Multistorey channels are characterised by relatively thick, vertically and laterally amalgamated sand-bodies (more than 15 metres), in a broad channel morphology (more than one kilometer) bounded at its base by a composite surface of erosion. Single-storey channels have been interpreted as distributary channels and multistorey channels as incised valleys. In contrast, the Lower Barrow Group is a contemporaneous wave-dominated delta and slope-to-basin-floor sediment gravity flow system. The depositional environments formed progradational clinoform seismic stratigraphic units that filled accommodation generated during rifting. The delta is organised into arcuate to cuspate lobes that show changes in the shelf-slope trajectory with variations in accommodation and sediment supply. During falling trajectories of the shelf-slope break, the slope is demarcated by gullies forming a line of feeder systems that transport sediment from the delta shoreface into the deep-water. The sediment gravity flows formed coalescing fans that blanket the toe-of-slope and basin floor.