More research needed to confirm if Kerry people with Type O blood more resistant to COVID-19

More research is needed to confirm if Kerry people with a certain blood type might be more resistant to COVID-19.

Dr Ciarán Walsh from Ballyheigue, who’s a researcher in the Department of Anthropology at Maynooth University, says - as COVID-19 is a blood disease - blood type could affect one’s resistance to the virus.

He says a 1970s publication concluded the original Kerry population was mostly Type O, with a lower infusion of European Type A genes, when compared to the rest of the country.

Dr Walsh says that an MIT study in the US concluded that blood type and the virus are linked; this could connect the historical dominance of Type O in Kerry with the low number of COVID-19 cases in the county.

However, he adds there’s more to find out.