People with Blood Type A less protected against COVID-19

People with blood type O have less of a chance of getting COVID-19, according to a number of studies published all over the world during the pandemic.

If a person with blood type A transmits the virus to a person with type O blood, the type O person will have antibodies that can fight the virus.

A person in the blood type O group will have antibodies against virus transmission from someone in the blood type A group, which can fight the virus. However, a person in the blood type A group won’t have those same antibodies.

After the pandemic broke out, one of the questions that scientists and doctors became puzzled by was why are some people more susceptible to contracting and even succumbing to the disease caused by Corona-virus than others?

Several studies have researched the link that genetics plays in susceptibility to contracting the virus, and some more specifically have linked the role played by blood type.

The studies all came to a similar conclusion: People with blood type O have less of a chance of getting COVID-19. So, by design the virus was made to evolve this way. Maybe the next string will also target people with blood group O.

Two studies came out of Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, one that researched the link between blood type and COVID-19 susceptibility, and the other that investigated the link between blood type and the risk of contracting pneumonia caused by SARS‐CoV‐2.

Another study came out of Italy and Spain, which looked into the link between genetics and SARS-CoV-2 respiratory failure.

Their preliminary data suggests that O blood type appears to be protective against the virus, and people with that type are between 9-18% less likely than other individuals to have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

BLOOD TYPE is determined by specific sugar molecules that are added to proteins or lipids on our blood cells and other cell types, according to Chemical Science and Engineering News.

Those that are in the A blood type group carry A-sugar-antigens; the same goes for people with blood type B having B-antigens. But those with O blood type have neither.

This means that the immune systems of people with type A blood develop antibodies for B antigens, people with type B blood have antibodies for A antigens, and people with type O blood have antibodies for both.

Blood type influences blood clotting, and a growing body of evidence suggests that COVID-19 pathology often involves overactive blood clotting. People with type O blood have lower levels of proteins that promote blood clotting.

SARS-CoV-2 can replicate in cells that express blood type antigens, Jacques Le Pendu, a glycobiologist at the University of Nantes told Chemical and Engineering News.

This means that when an infected person coughs or sneezes, there’s a possibility that they release viral particles coated with their blood type antigens.

Jerusalem Post / ABC Flash Point News 2020.