According to the results of research by the Italian scientific institute Mario Negri “it is very likely that the heavier forms of Covid-19 (ie the disease caused by the coronavirus) are linked to a genetic predisposition of the patients”. The study specifically concerns the cases and deaths recorded in the spring of 2020 in the wider area of ​​Bergamo, in northern Italy.

As the Italian press writes, the research shows that the genes that may predispose to more severe symptoms and a greater risk of death were allegedly bequeathed to the inhabitants of the area by the Neanderthal man. In this particular case, according to the research of the Negri Institute, the genetic mutation of the Neanderthal gene seems to double the risk of developing pneumonia due to the coronavirus and almost triples the need to admit patients to an intensive care unit (ICU).

The relevant research, which lasted two years, is published in the scientific journal “iScience” and was presented today at the headquarters of the Lombardy region, with Milan as its capital.

Bergamo, as the newspaper La Repubblica reminds, was the first region in which the coronavirus pandemic spread massively in Europe, in a very aggressive way. Nearly ten thousand residents of Lombardy collaborated with the scientists. These are citizens who fell ill with Covid-19 and health workers.