the African resistance to covid

 I have cited this elsewhere, but am posting here so I don't lose the link.

Although people of African heritage are more prone to get and die of covid in the USA and UK, (maybe due to the lack of Vitamin D caused by darker skin blocking sunlight), there are fewer deaths in the African continent.

And this might be a genetic factor.

Austin Bay (10 2020) noted 

Chinese are a growing presence in Africa where they are making large investments in mining and other enterprises. As a result, there is a lot of travel between China and Africa and covid19 showed up in Africa but has not become an epidemic. The public health systems in Africa are far less capable as those in the rest of the world like China.

 

Chinese researchers discovered that Africans are less likely to catch covid19 because they have one fifth as many cellular receptors in their lungs than Chinese.

italics mine. 

That difference enables covid19 to cause breathing problems more, or less, readily. Other researchers found that this genetic difference was most helpful for Africans and most harmful for East Asians. People in other parts of the world have less resistance to covid19 than Africans.

Lung damage is the most frequent cause of death among covid19 victims. By April Africa, with 18 percent of the world population, has only suffered about 0.3 percent of the covid19 infections. Africans are not immune, just less likely to get infected or suffer the breathing problems that cause most covid10 related deaths.

 again, italics mine.

Such genetic differences are common and account for some ethnic groups having different health problems, or advantages.

the article then goes on to note a few other racial traits that are associated with less disease, such as malaria and sickle cell. Light skin colour and less rickets and fewer maternal deaths from rickets also was a strong evolutionary reason for pale Koreans and Scandanavians.