Neanderthals at Risk from COVID-19?

THIS ARTICLE gives an interesting perspective on genetics. It is well known that most of us have some fragments of Neanderthal DNA in our genome. This happened when Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) left Africa and interbred with Neanderthals in Eurasia. A few Neanderthals went the other way but most Africans have very little Neanderthal DNA.

Fast-forward a few millennia and Covid-19 arrived. And it was found that if you had a section of code on chromosome-3 you were more likely to have a severe (unfortunately often fatal) reaction to COVID. And this section of code is very similar to that in the Neanderthal genome!

You can find the original paper HERE.

Is this why COVID-19 mortality is lower in Africa than one might expect?