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A growing body of research suggests a link between blood type and coronavirus risk.
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New studies have found that people with Type O blood have a lower risk of getting the coronavirus and are less likely to get severely sick if they do get infected.
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Some research has also found that COVID-19 patients with Type O or B blood spent less time in the ICU and were less likely to need a ventilator.
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But blood type shouldn't be used to judge an individual patient's risk.Research is coalescing around the idea that people with Type O blood may have a slight advantage during this pandemic.
Two studies published this week suggest that people with Type O have a lower risk of getting the coronavirus, as well as a reduced likelihood of getting severely sick if they do get infected.
One of the new studies specifically found that COVID-19 patients with Type O or B blood spent less time in an intensive-care unit than their counterparts with Type A or AB. They were also less likely to require ventilation and less likely to experience kidney failure.
These new findings echo similar findings about Type O blood seen in previous research, creating a clearer picture of one particular coronavirus risk factor.
Both new studies came out Wednesday in the journal Blood Advances. One looked at 95 critically ill COVID-19 patients at hospitals in Vancouver, Canada, between February and April.
