Your Blood Type and Covid-19

[Marlene]

Some links, very easy to find:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-blood-type-linked-to-covid-19-risk
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200320/blood-type-may-affect-covid19-risk-study
https://www.nbc12.com/2020/03/21/st...-could-make-you-more-susceptible-coronavirus/
https://www.sciencealert.com/paper-...ight-be-slightly-more-susceptible-to-covid-19

The first article discusses the actual findings. The others sound like journalists' interpretations. The key parts of the article from a scientific view are:

Experts not involved with the research have commented on the findings, explaining that the study does not demonstrate a causal relationship between blood type and susceptibility to being hospitalized with COVID-19.

Sakthi Vaiyapuri, Ph.D., an associate professor of cardiovascular and venom pharmacology at the University of Reading, in the United Kingdom, emphasizes that people with type A blood should not worry because of this preliminary study’s results.

“There is little evidence to substantiate any claim that there [is] any more than a coincidental correlation between blood group ABO and susceptibility of contracting COVID-19,” he says.

Moreover, the current study, which included data only from very specific populations in China, did not account for some confounding factors, such as that blood group distribution varies by country.

However, if further research confirms the study’s findings, they could help medical professionals identify people most at risk of requiring hospitalization due to infection with the new virus.




“There are far too many parameters that cast doubt over the credibility of [the researchers’] claims, which — worse still — are not mentioned in a non-peer reviewed preprint study,” Vaiyapuri cautions.

 

[Suzy623]

At birth I had to receive a total blood transfusion because of this issue, but my husband is AB+ and though I’m 0- my children did not have any issues.

My first child is 0- and my second is AB+ so it never became an issue with my pregnancies. My daughter (0-) had a difficult time with her 3rd pregnancy and ended up losing the baby. I think I was too naive when I was pregnant with my first one. Or else I was too happy to take the doctor seriously.

 

[Aneeda72]

My mother did not have a third child, thank heaven, she is not suited for motherhood.

 

[Sunny]

The trouble with drawing this type of conclusion is that the connection between two things (getting Covid-19 and blood type) could be meaningless, coincidental, etc. I wonder what would happen if somebody analyzed the incidence of the disease among different colors of hair, skin, eyes, whether a person has freckles, height and weight, mental outlook, musical talent, or hundreds of other things. Every one of those things would show a higher incidence of disease among one type or another, but that proves absolutely about the connection being meaningful. Most of these comparisons turn out to be just coincidence.

 

[Aneeda72]

The trouble with drawing this type of conclusion is that the connection between two things (getting Covid-19 and blood type) could be meaningless, coincidental, etc. I wonder what would happen if somebody analyzed the incidence of the disease among different colors of hair, skin, eyes, whether a person has freckles, height and weight, mental outlook, musical talent, or hundreds of other things. Every one of those things would show a higher incidence of disease among one type or another, but that proves absolutely about the connection being meaningful. Most of these comparisons turn out to be just coincidence.

The powers that be are doing that just now concerning race and the virus.

 

[Suzy623]

The trouble with drawing this type of conclusion is that the connection between two things (getting Covid-19 and blood type) could be meaningless, coincidental, etc. I wonder what would happen if somebody analyzed the incidence of the disease among different colors of hair, skin, eyes, whether a person has freckles, height and weight, mental outlook, musical talent, or hundreds of other things. Every one of those things would show a higher incidence of disease among one type or another, but that proves absolutely about the connection being meaningful. Most of these comparisons turn out to be just coincidence.

You are absolutely right Sunny. It's certainly not going to convince me to get closer to people or travel or go shopping. It's just a topic of conversation and has no merit. But the recent information regarding more blacks having Covid-19 is intriguing.

 

[Knight]

Coronavirus patients can benefit from blood of the recovered, new study shows


For 10 patients severely ill with the new coronavirus, a single dose of antibodies drawn from the blood of people who had recovered from COVID-19 appeared to save lives, shorten the duration of symptoms, improve oxygen levels and speed up viral clearance, newly published research reports.

The preliminary findings emerged from a “pilot study” published Monday in the journal PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Conducted at THREE HOSPITALS IN CHINA, it underscored the promise of harvesting immune antibodies from recovered people (a therapy also known as convalescent plasma) and administering them to people battling a severe case of COVID-19.


I'm not sure this kind of pilot study would be possible in America.

 

[Suzy623]

There has been success in using that procedure many years ago with blood from those who recovered from the Spanish Flu (I think it was from around that time). Back then there were no antibiotics so blood was used. Now they can use blood plasma. It was about 2 months back when a friend and I were talking about that and then I read where research was being done to see if it would work with this virus. There was something about the antibodies in your blood from the flu that only stays in your blood for about 3 weeks. I understood it to indicate that it wouldn't be effective as a vaccine. At the time I read the article it wasn't even known if you could catch Covid-19 again if you had the disease before. There was a study going on in America along these lines but I never kept up with it.