Two new studies suggest that blood type may not matter when it comes to the severity of your COVID-19 risk, despite previous research showing that people with type A blood may be at higher risk.
What’s new?
- Studies from Massachusetts General Hospital and the other at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York found no connection between those with type A blood who are more likely to contract COVID-19, according to The New York Times.
- However, people with Type O are less likely to be infected, according to The New York Times.
- But the impact is small. Investigators said you shouldn’t count on that.
- Nicholas Tatonetti, a data scientist at Columbia University, told the New York Times: “No one should think that they are protected.”
- The researchers found that those with type A blood had a somewhat lower risk of using ventilators. Those with Type AB were at higher risk. But scientists said there were few patients with that blood type in the study.
But what about the previous research?
- Earlier this month, a genetic analysis of COVID-19 patients found that certain blood types may have been more immune than others, as I wrote for Deseret.com.
- Scientists reviewed genes from thousands of coronavirus patients.
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Type A patients were more likely to have a severe reaction to the disease, according to that analysis. Type O patients were less likely.
- “Our genetic data confirms that blood group O is associated with a lower risk of acquiring COVID-19 than that of non-O blood groups, while blood group A was associated with a higher risk than non-O blood groups. A, “the researchers noted. concluded
