Vials of blood.
Photo: Getty Images / Science Photo Library
As scientists around the world have rushed to understand COVID-19, the general public has been inundated with a series of preliminary studies and subsequent recommendations, some of which have been conflicting, leaving us with “coronavirus whiplash.” . A recent source of confusion has been the relationship between the coronavirus and blood type. At the beginning of the pandemic, some scientists observed that people with type A blood appeared to be at increased risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19. However, conflicting research has increased, and it now appears that the link between coronavirus and blood type is much weaker than early studies suggest.
This is what we know about the coronavirus and blood type.
In the first months of the pandemic, a handful of studies suggested that the blood type might be a risk factor both for becoming infected with the coronavirus and for developing a severe case. In March, a study outside of China compared blood samples from 2,173 coronavirus patients with samples from healthy individuals and found that 38 percent of the patients had type A blood, compared to 32 percent of the unaffected population in the surrounding areas; They also found that those with type O blood appeared to have a reduced risk of becoming infected. But in the study itself, the researchers cautioned against using their findings to make clinical decisions, instead urging “further investigation of the relationship between ABO blood group and COVID-19 susceptibility.” (And how MIT Technology Review noted that the study was not peer-reviewed).
In June, The New England Journal of Medicine published a peer review study on the subject, in which European researchers observed more than 1,600 patients who contracted severe cases of COVID-19. (The study characterized severe illness from the need for a ventilator or other form of oxygen supplementation.) Overall, the study found that those with type A blood had a 45 percent higher risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19, while those with type O had a 35 percent reduction in risk.
Last week, New York Times reported on two new Studies indicating that blood type may not be as big a risk factor as previous research suggested. A study was conducted at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, which reviewed the medical records of 7,770 coronavirus cases. The researchers found that people with type A blood actually appeared. Less It is likely that you will develop a case of COVID-19 severe enough to require ventilation. (The researchers published the initial results of this study, involving 1,559 patients with coronavirus, in April; according to the Times, the entire study, which involves the largest sample size, is still under review for publication in a scientific journal.)
A second study, conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital, showed that blood type did not increase the likelihood of becoming seriously ill, which the researchers defined as requiring intubation or dying. However, the researchers found that people with type AB and B blood had a slightly higher risk of testing positive.
For him TimesBoth studies found that people with type O had a slightly lower risk of contracting the coronavirus. But Anahita Dua, lead author of the Massachusetts General Hospital study, cautioned against jumping to conclusions. “These findings need to be further explored to determine if there is something inherent in these blood types that could confer protection or induce risk in people,” she told the Harvard Medical School.
Public health experts agree that regardless of their blood type, no one should assume that they are protected against the coronavirus. “Everyone should practice in exactly the same way, whatever their blood type, in terms of appropriate masking and social distancing,” said Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau earlier this month in New York. Dua told the Times she “wouldn’t even mention” the blood type when examining why a person might have tested positive for the coronavirus. Instead, public health experts emphasize that people should put more weight on known risk factors, particularly older age and underlying health conditions.
