Scientists in China recently shared information about their research suggesting that people with certain blood types may be more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus, reports say.
According the the research, people with type A blood appear to be more at risk than those with other blood types. The study looked at the blood types of 2,173 patients from three different hospitals in China and compared those blood types to the blood types of a group of 3,694 people who are representative of the general population of Wuhan.
According to the research, 32.16% of the population researchers studied in Wuhan has blood type A, while 33.84% have blood type O.
Of those hospitalized for COVID-19, 37.75% had blood type A, while 25.8% had blood type O. Of the 206 patients in the study who died, 85 had blood type A or about 41% of all deaths, the study showed.
The study was posted online for review, and it has not yet been published in a medical journal.
Dr. Sakthivel Vaiyapuri, an associate professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom who has read the study, told PolitiFact that he would not give much weight to the study because it had not been peer-reviewed.
Other doctors say those with blood type A should NOT panic since more research needs to be done.