Covid-19: a Neanderthal gene variant seems to be linked with risk of severe cases
A study by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, published in Nature, shows that patients with a segment of DNA inherited from Neanderthals were up to three times more likely to develop a severe form of Covid -19 requiring hospitalization and mechanical ventilation.
This variant of the gene was inherited by modern humans about 60,000 years ago.
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Zeberg, H & Pääbo, S (2020) The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2818-3.