Blood type not a factor in COVID susceptibilty

[hamsterjill]

“ Early in the pandemic, some reports suggested people with A-type blood were more susceptible to COVID, while those with O-type blood were less so.

But a review of nearly 108,000 patients in a three-state health network has found no link at all between blood type and COVID risk.

"Since the beginning of this pandemic, there have been associations postulated between blood type and disease susceptibility," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

"From this large study, it appears that there is no association between blood type and susceptibility or severity, and other explanations were likely present," added Adalja, who had no role in the study.”


https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-refutes-theory-blood-affects-covid.amp

[Ocelot II]

1. Well, that's good to know.

I'm Type A (in more ways than one), and that early study was just one of the many things that was making me nervous. Now I'm vaccinated but I'm still scared of people - that will take a little time to get over - but at least I have no other exacerbating conditions except for being old.

[hamsterjill]

2. Me, too.

I was very worried about the blood factor. I’m gratified that they are learning more to potentially help with treatments.

[Reader Rabbit]

3. Huh

And I was so sure that my having practically no reaction to my second vaccine dose was due to being Type O.

That's what I get for thinking!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Good. And I'm not at all surprised.

The supposed connection found between blood type and Covid struck me as so small as to be meaningless in the first place.

There's actually other nonsense out there about blood type, such as you should eat differently with different blood types.

[wackadoo wabbit]

5. Interesting, but that doesn't explain the study that showed that SARS-CoV-2 has a strong preference

for binding to the blood group A antigen found on respiratory cells.

The researchers focused on a protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the receptor binding domain (RBD), which is the part of the virus that attaches to the host cells. That makes it an important target for scientists trying to learn how the virus infects people. . . .

The results showed that the SARS-CoV-2 RBD had a strong preference for binding to blood group A found on respiratory cells, but had no preference for blood group A red blood cells, or other blood groups found on respiratory or red cells.

The SARS-CoV-2 RBD's preference to recognize and attach to the blood type A antigen found in the lungs of people with blood type A may provide insight into the potential link between blood group A and COVID-19 infection, according to the authors of the study. It was published March 3 in the journal Blood Advances.

"It is interesting that the viral RBD only really prefers the type of blood group A antigens that are on respiratory cells, which are presumably how the virus is entering most patients and infecting them," said study author Dr. Sean Stowell, from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Here's a link to the full paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7929867/