Study suggests blood group may influence Covid-19 severity Start › News < back 19 Jun 2020 The results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, suggest that people in blood group A are at a greater risk of being infected with the coronavirus and of developing more severe symptoms. The risk is 45% higher for these people than for the rest. On the contrary, the risk is lower for blood group O. During the peak of the pandemic in Europe, researchers analyzed the genes of more than 4,000 infected and critically ill people. They looked for similarities and found variations in the genes responsible for immune responses. “The hope is that these discoveries will point the way to a better understanding of the biology of Covid-19. They also suggest that a genetic test and blood group may provide useful tools to identify who is most at risk for serious illnesses, "explained Francis Collins, director of the United States National Institutes of Health. Source: SIC Notícias