Oxford University researchers have found a gene – LZTFL1 – that’s present in 60% of South Asians and allows the virus to multiply in the lungs more easily. By contrast, only 15% of Europeans and 2% of black Africans have the gene. MailOnline has more.
Scientists say the genetic quirk may partly explain why South Asian people in the U.K. have been disproportionately affected by Covid.
But they emphasised the single gene is not the sole reason for the disparity, and highlighted the seriousness of social and economic factors.
Office for National Statistics data show Bangladeshi men were nearly five times as likely to die with the virus than their white counterparts during the second wave of the pandemic in England.
Pakistani men were the second most affected (3.4 times as likely), while Indian men were the fourth worst hit ethnic group (1.95 times as likely).
Experts had previously found a stretch of DNA could double the risk of dying in adults aged 65 and above but were not aware of the exact gene that was causing the effect.
Professor Jim Hughes, a genetics expert who co-lead the study, said: “The reason this has proved so difficult to work out, is that the previously identified genetic signal affects the ‘dark matter’ of the genome.
“We found that the increased risk is not because of a difference in gene coding for a protein, but because of a difference in the DNA that makes a switch to turn a gene on.
“It’s much harder to detect the gene which is affected by this kind of indirect switch effect.”
Worth reading in full.
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Damned funny gene. First half of the year it affects black people , second half, it doesn’t.
Just the most obvious problem with this crock of smelly stuff.
First Australian Covid Vax, approved overseas, but instead of a medal, we sack Prof Petrovsky « JoNova (joannenova.com.au)
“Like Novavax, Covax-19 uses a form of the infamous spike protein, but because the protein is made, purified and then injected, each person receives an exact known dose, and there is no need for any genetic material to be introduced inside our cells. There’s little risk of autoimmune disorders, like myocarditis, because the spike isn’t made inside our own cells and isn’t expressed on the surface of them. When healthy cells express the spike, our immune system is more likely to mistake them as a foreign threat which triggers the autoimmune disease.”
A traditional vaccine.
That sounds very promising if true.
Novavax has also now been approved in Indonesia;
https://www.ft.com/content/782a6283-2694-49b4-b4dc-387fb46ecfab
They have made a submission for UK approval and this is now going through the system. I think the mRNA vaccine firms, Pfizer in particular, have been ruthless to try and sideline and torpedo any alternative vaccines and so it is interesting to see that some have made it through. I am not sure if Novavax is any safer than the mRNA ones but it looks like it maybe, it certainly could hardly be any worse!
Doomed, then.
Almost, Covaxin is the first and as yet only traditional vaccine approved by the WHO, hopefully followed by Valneva. Covax-19 and Novavax are better than mRNA ones , but so is Janssen.
Heh, you could make a great conspiracy theory out of this as it is a virus that emerged from a Chinese lab that disporportionately affects China’s enemies…
Ferguson is confronted and asked some fundamental questions relating to the unlawful lockdowns. This is foundational stuff, and the utter fraud feels no sense of compulsion to answer the questions. The coward’s time will come:
https://youtu.be/zmeg7d4DL1Y
He could have pleaded the 5th Amendment …… if we had one. And that is the route of OUR problems. We have no Constitutional Rights.
Sorry, this is impossible. Our wise leaders from Cameron to Corbyn, Boris to Biden, have assured us that any and all outcome disparities between different ethnic groups are due to systemic racism, huwite supremacy and Trump.
Oh dear, you omitted BREXIT!!! Naughty corner for you.
I recall BBC had an axe to grind for people with white hair, categorising them all as dangerous racist Brexiteers who don’t care about the future of the young brainwashed millennials. Of course a positive future for the young has now been severely dashed against the rocks thanks in large part to the BBC’s covid>climate propaganda.
‘Ethnic’ refers to cultural differences whereas ‘racial’ refers to genetic differences.
No wonder they postponed the release of the new Bond film.
I have read some suggestion that people with IgA deficiency are more likely to experience more serious illness from COVID.
Which would fit with the theory about a genetic component, since IgA deficiency is genetic.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/immunoglobulin-a-deficiency
There’s a higher rate of diabetes amongst Indians, isn’t there? But also, all that very complicated grandmother effect stuff first noticed after the Dutch famine, so that a period of Bangladeshi or Indian famine could affect grandchildren many years later with obesity or heart problems – is my memory. Which would link obviously to Covid susceptibility.
There’s a higher rate of diabetes amongst Indians but not necessarily because of genetics.
Indians tend towards a more vegetarian diet which, if you are relying on traditional foods will not promote diabetes until much later in life. Access to hyperprocessed food, nicely vegetarian and hyperpalatable, has greatly increased the rate of diabetes at a much younger age.
Two times virtually nothing is still hardly noticeable.
That’s correct. But it’s nevertheless amazing that this kind of stuff is allowed to be published at all as it flies flat into the face of Uncritical Nonsense Theory which explains every phenomenon under to sun as problem stemming from the fact that everything-European is naturally evil and must be overcome.
Presumably, this comes from people who had a really hard time in school back in the day who are now seeking revenge for that.
Doesn’t explain why Asian doctors died in such large numbers before being advised to up their D3 status (the initiative by another doctor who provided the D3) but didn’t die afterwards.
Is this more likely a fishing around for anything that denies that D3, and other measures to naturally strengthen the immune system, have any part in Pharma driven tick in the box medicine?
While the MSM condemns the use of ivermectin, the most populated state in India just declared they are officially COVID free after promoting widespread use of the safe, proven medicine. In addition to this, Ivermectin attaches to covid spikes and prevents them from binding to ACE2. Get your Ivermectin today while you still can! https://health.p0l.org/
But but but we’re all the same under the skin…..
So a gene which makes South Asian people in Britain more susceptible to Covid, whereas South Asians in South Asia are what exactly?
https://mobile.twitter.com/MLevitt_NP2013/status/1456287208869085188
Big dose of salt required with this study me thinks.
The genetic predisposition of (particularly) Bangladeshi people was highlighted by me early last year. I have repeatedly explained that while social circumstances may change infection risk, that does not have an influence on whether infection progresses to Covid-19. The sad fact is that there is and has been extensive evidence of genetic influence on cytokine storm syndrome, not least because it has been known for years that this can be caused by other coronaviruses.
I also repeatedly suggested that BAME health workers should be shielded from front line care of Covid patients. All ignored. So the only new thing here is that I have been proved right again.
Oxford scare-mongering and being racially prejudiced, as per usual
And they got paid for that.
“ they emphasised the single gene is not the sole reason for the disparity, and highlighted the seriousness of social and economic factors.”
Exactly. Lovely MSM story – because it’s in the headline horror genre, but such stuff is usually multi-variable in nature, with a statistical significance for something like this.
Assuming the claims made in the article are true (I’m not qualified to judge this), this is about a proven cause – effect relation. As such, it’s science and no number of This correlation nice correlation! mathematical mumbo-jumbo analysis of – often anecdotical – historical information plays even remotely in the same league.
Point of evidence: As can be determined by looking at the second-to-last comment before your’s, someone immediately saw a need to attach the by now well-known labels scare-mongering and racist to it, despite neither of both does have any relation to the text. Unpleasant facts must always be buried in this way for the statistical pseudoscience to continue unabated.
Is this why the media whom is used to flaunting poor Africa stories haven’t really done so in this case?
Is this a gene based weapon from wuhan lab?
who knows.