It is not just the existing conditions that can put you at risk of developing severe COVID. According to a new study, a factor that can only be observed in your blood may be the key to determining how debilitating your COVID symptoms are. Read on to discover what could put you at risk for a serious case of COVID. And if you want to be eager for the pandemic to be over, COVID will “mostly disappear” by this date, says Dr. Johns Hopkins.
According to a January 2021 study published in the journal Genetics in medicine, it is likely that individuals without a specific type of natural killer (NK) receptor in their blood develop more severe cases of COVID than those who have it. When the specific NKG2C receptor identified by researchers – which usually binds to the HLA-E antigen in the bloodstream to destroy virus-infected cells – is missing, someone’s risk of developing severe COVID increases.
The study found that about four percent of the population lacks the NKG2C receptor completely, while 30 percent have an NKG2C receptor that is not fully available, and as such may provide insufficient protection when fighting COVID.
“The absence of the receptor is particularly prevalent in COVID-19 patients treated in intensive care units, regardless of age or gender,” Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl, MD, lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Genetic variations on the HLA-E of the infected cell have also been linked to severity of the disease, albeit to a lesser extent.”
However, this is not the only thing that can increase or decrease your chances of a serious case of COVID; read on to find out what other factors can put you at risk. And for more insight into your risk, go to If you did this recently, you’re probably more than 70 percent COVID.
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