TOLEDO, Ohio — There's an interesting question circulating in the medical field: Could your blood type play a role in your chances of catching COVID-19?
According to one study, yes, it could.
A March report from Chinese researchers is producing questions and pushback as it says people with one blood type are at higher risk of catching COVID-19.
"There seemed, initially, to be a protective effect for those who are blood type O and there seemed to be a negative effect, meaning more severe disease, in those people who were blood type A," ProMedica Dr. Brian Kaminski explained.
There is still much to be learned about blood types and how they are linked to infectious diseases.
But there are four blood types in the main group: A, B, O and AB.
The March study, Dr. Kaminski said, is turning out not to be true.
"It appears now that there isn't any difference in severity of illness between the blood types," he said. "It's in our detection of the illness rather than in the severity of the illness."
That's according to several new studies, including one by Harvard researchers.
Essentially, that means no matter what blood type you have, you're at no higher or lower risk of catching COVID-19.
However, if you have type O blood, this next part is important.
"What we did find, and we don't know the answer to this yet, is we found that the likelihood of someone with blood type O testing falsely-positive for the coronavirus was higher," Kaminski said.
There is still plenty of research to be done and many answers that have yet to surface as science is an evolving process. But Kaminski said he is confident you don't have to stress about catching the virus solely based on what's running through your veins.