A genetic variant inherited from Neanderthals reduces the risk of severe COVID-19

(Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University) SARS-CoV-2 impacts people in different ways after infection. Some experience only mild or no symptoms at all while others become sick enough to require hospitalization.Now, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany have found that a group of genes that reduces the risk of severe COVID-19 by around 20% is...