Watch a Doctor Explain the Potential Link Between Different Blood Types and COVID-19 - menshealth.com

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Doctor Mike HansenYouTube

In a recent YouTube video, Mike Hansen, MD, a specialist in pulmonary medicine and critical care, dove into the facts behind the theory that our blood type can affect our chances of becoming infected with COVID-19.

"People of all blood types can get COVID, and people of all blood types can possibly die of COVID if they get the infection," Hansen says right at the top. However, he acknowledges that several studies have found evidence to support the idea that people with type O blood have a significantly lower risk of contracting the virus, and people with type A are more likely to be infected. "The association of blood type is not explainable by other risk factors like obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure," he says.

But what happens when somebody with type A blood and somebody with type O blood both contract COVID? Does their experience of the illness differ in terms of symptoms or severity? In a Chinese study, mortality rates were found to be higher in patients who were type A than type O.

There are a few hypotheses as to why blood type might play a part in the likelihood of somebody contracting coronavirus.

Type A blood features A-sugar antigens, and type B blood includes B-sugar antigens. Type O has neither. While type A blood also carries antibodies for B antigens, and vice versa, type O blood carries antibodies for both. So if a person with type O blood were to encounter respiratory droplets from an infected person with type A or B blood, those droplets would include A or B antigens along with the virus.

According to one theory, a type O person's antibodies would fight off the virus as the same time as the antigens. However, if a type O person were to cough near a type A or B person, they would not transmit those antigens, and so the risk of infection would be greater. "This theory doesn't necessarily explain why type A is worse than type B," says Hansen.

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People with type O blood also have lower levels of Von Willebrand Factor (VWF), a protein that is involved in the formation of blood clots — something which many COVID patients experience as part of their illness. "This might explain why type O blood means less blood clots, and this might partially explain why people with type O overall have less severe disease with COVID," says Hansen.

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Philip Ellis Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues.

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