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Does Your Blood Type Increase Your Risk for Coronavirus?
What the experts say
Here’s what you should know about Covid-19 and blood type. As Markham Heid reports for Elemental, new findings linking blood type to Covid-19 severity should not be overhyped. Here’s an excerpt:
SARS and Covid-19 stem from genetically related coronaviruses. So it makes some sense that if a certain blood type is associated with a lower risk for one of these infections, it could also lower a person’s risk for the other. There are also several well-established connections between blood type and infectious diseases; for example, type O blood is protective against malaria but is associated with more severe cases of cholera.
The new Covid-19 findings surely produced some relief in people who are type O and dread in those who are type A. But some experts who have looked at the research say that the findings are questionable — and may ultimately prove to be either inaccurate or misleading.
“I keep getting emails from people asking me if they should get blood typed, and I tell them definitely not!” says Laura Cooling, MD, a professor and associate director of transfusion medicine at the University of Michigan.
Read the full explanation below.
