Apparently O-type blood is less likely to respond badly to Covid. A-type doesn't handle it well at all.
Though I'm not sure how true the blood type thing is. I saw a study a few months back that said blood type didn't make much of a difference.
Thanks for answering! I had read that type B was worst, but this article says differently. I am type O+ Which gives me the O advantage, but not the Rh negative. If blood type affects us at all!
"The rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has strained healthcare and testing resources, making the identification and prioritization of individuals most at-risk a critical challenge. Recent evidence suggests blood type may affect risk of severe COVID-19. Here, we use observational healthcare data on 14,112 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2 with known blood type in the New York Presbyterian (NYP) hospital system to assess the association between ABO and Rh blood types and infection, intubation, and death. We find slightly increased infection prevalence among non-O types. Risk of intubation was decreased among A and increased among AB and B types, compared with type O, while risk of death was increased for type AB and decreased for types A and B. We estimate Rh-negative blood type to have a protective effect for all three outcomes. Our results add to the growing body of evidence suggesting blood type may play a role in COVID-19."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19623-x
Here is another article:
"You may have heard that blood type matters when it comes to contracting COVID-19. But how? What scientists have learned is blood type seems to matter in at least two ways:
Risk of acquiring COVID-19
The severity of the COVID-19 disease
Recent data suggests that people with blood type A have a significantly higher risk of acquiring COVID-19 than non-A blood types. Blood type O seems to have the lowest risk. Yet these risks are relative, meaning people with type O blood are not immune to COVID-19. "We do know that people of all types can get infected with COVID-19," says cardiologist Daniel Anderson, MD, PhD.
Your blood type may also affect how severe the progression of COVID-19 will be. "Some evidence shows the severity of the infection is associated with different blood cell types, but the mechanisms by which it happens are unclear," says Dr. Anderson.
Blood type is not the only factor in disease severity. How much virus you were exposed to, your age, plus any of your underlying health conditions also affects the course and severity of the disease. Say, for example, you and your friend who have the same susceptibility are both sharing a bus with someone who has asymptomatic COVID-19. Your friend sits next to the person infected. You sit 7 feet away from both of them. Your friend would have a worse case of COVID-19 because they were infected with more virus. We call this the viral load. "Masks are important because they filter out some of the virus and decreases the viral load, which makes the infection less severe," says Dr. Anderson. An infection with a lower viral load makes a positive difference in clinical infection in all people.
The question researchers are trying to answer is why blood type matters. One theory is that antibodies may play a role. You may know that blood type A individuals can't donate blood to people with type B blood. That's because of a particular type of antibody they make that attacks other red blood cells. Type O individuals have anti-A and anti-B antibodies, while type A individuals only have one kind: anti-B antibodies. Similarly, type B individuals only have anti-A antibodies. Perhaps having both anti-A and anti-B antibodies gives type O individuals the ability to minimize the disease. We don't know the answer, which is why ongoing research is so important.
UNMC researcher Rebekah Gundry, PhD, received a "COVID-19 and Its Cardiovascular Impact Rapid Response Grant" from the American Heart Association in May of 2020. Dr. Gundry and her team continue to investigate how heart injuries caused by COVID-19 develop and the impact of red blood cells on the infection. Together, Drs. Gundry and Anderson and their collaborators have been collecting and studying blood and tissue samples for this collaborative research."
https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/how-blood-type-affects-covid-19
But, here is another article that says blood type does not affect COVID. This is real science. And it is in conflict, it may take years to decide which hypothesis is right, blood type does, or does not affect the severity of COVID!
"This article is part of Harvard Medical School’s continuing coverage of medicine, biomedical research, medical education and policy related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the disease COVID-19.
Blood type is not associated with a severe worsening of symptoms in people who have tested positive for COVID-19, report Harvard Medical School researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Their findings, published in the Annals of Hematology, dispel previous reports that suggested a correlation between certain blood types and COVID-19.
Get more HMS news here
The study did find, however, that symptomatic individuals with blood types B and AB who were Rh positive were more likely to test positive for COVID-19, while those with blood type O were less likely to test positive.
“We showed through a multi-institutional study that there is no reason to believe being a certain ABO blood type will lead to increased disease severity, which we defined as requiring intubation or leading to death,” said senior study author Anahita Dua, HMS assistant professor of surgery at Mass General.
“This evidence should help put to rest previous reports of a possible association between blood type A and a higher risk for COVID-19 infection and mortality,” Dua said."
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/covid-19-blood-type
Please notice that although the first 2 articles draw different conclusions from the third, no one is yelling, calling names, or suggesting the other side is going to lose their salvation (or membership to some science club!). This is how adults treat each other.