Does a certain set of genes pre-dispose you to have a severe case of COVID? —

[Geee]

Marginal Revolution

I won’t indent further, all the rest is from the reader:

“Some thoughts on your heterogeneity post. I agree this is still bafflingly under-discussed in “the discourse” & people are grasping onto policy arguments but ignoring the medical/bio aspects since ignorance of those is higher.

Nobody knows the answer right now, obviously, but I did want to call out two hypotheses that remain underrated:

1) Genetic variation

This means variation in the genetics of people (not the virus). We already know that (a) mutation in single genes can lead to extreme susceptibility to other infections, e.g Epstein–Barr (usually harmless but sometimes severe), tuberculosis; (b) mutation in many genes can cause disease susceptibility to vary — diabetes (WHO link), heart disease are two examples, which is why when you go to the doctor you are asked if you have a family history of these.

It is unlikely that COVID was type (a), but it’s quite likely that COVID is type (b). In other words, I expect that there are a certain set of genes which (if you have the “wrong” variants) pre-dispose you to have a severe case of COVID, another set of genes which (if you have the “wrong” variants) predispose you to have a mild case, and if you’re lucky enough to have the right variants of these you are most likely going to get a mild or asymptomatic case.

There has been some good preliminary work on this which was also under-discussed:

 

[Valin]

@Geee

Another question.  Does a certain set of genes pre-dispose some people to acquire a severe case of The Stupids?

[Geee]

56 minutes ago, Valin said:

@Geee

Another question.  Does a certain set of genes pre-dispose some people to acquire a severe case of The Stupids?

Nature or Nurture ????

[Valin]

3 hours ago, Geee said:

Nature or Nurture ????

or Nutso!