Remember when RFK Jr. discussed about the genetic susceptibility to Covid and the media vilified him?

In this prominent video, RFK Jr. started off by saying that the U.S. (along with China) have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars into racial/ethnic bio weapons and that there’s an argument that Covid is racially/ethnically targeted. He also mentioned the genetic structure of the ACE2 receptor is different among racial/ethnic groups which is why certain races/ethnicities are more immune or susceptible to Covid. RFK Jr. said that Whites and Blacks that were most susceptible to Covid and named two other groups that were the least susceptible to Covid. The media intentionally focused on this last part and called him a racist, antisemitic, etc. I had previously learned that he was referring to results in a study I now decided to look more closely at it. Before I get into the results of the study, I would like to discuss what the ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are and why they are significant in the context of Covid. In  addition, I would like to briefly go over the methodology.

Insight about ACE2 and TMPRSS2

ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are natural human proteins that some viruses such as Covid are used to invade the cells. The ACE2 is a receptor protein found on the surface of many cells in the body. The Covid virus’s spike protein latches on the ACE2. The TMPRSS2 is a helper enzyme that cuts the spike protein so the virus can get inside the cell.

Methodology

The researchers first started by collecting protein-altering variants in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 from population genome databases (gnomAD v3, ESP,1KGP). Then they scored each variant with PolyPhen2 and CADD, then kept only those that met the deleterious threshold. GnomAD split samples into ancestry/population groups (AFR, EUR,AMR, EAS, FIN, SAS,AMI, ASJ). For each population group, they checked among the 61 ACE2 deleterious variants (and 63 TMPRSS2 deleterious variants) which variants showed up with non-zero allele frequency in each population. The researchers then counted the number of deleterious variants found in each population and from there took most of the percentages.

Results of the study

For the deleterious ACE2 variants: 

39% of the deleterious ACE2 variants were in African/African-American (AFR) and 54% were in European (EUR) groups.

Latino/Admixed American (AMR), East Asians (EAS), Finnish (FIN) and South Asian (SAS) groups had fewer deleterious ACE2 variants-as few as 2-10%.

Amish (AMI) and Ashkenazi Jewish (ASJ) groups didn’t show any deleterious ACE2 variants.

For the deleterious TMPRSS2 variants:

35% of the deleterious TMPRSS2 were carried by African/African-Americans (AFR)

59% were carried by Europeans (EUR)

East Asians (EAS), South Asian (SAS), Finnish (FIN) each carry 0.06% (4/63) of the deleterious TMPRSS2 variants 

 Latino/Admixed American (AMR) carry 0.22% (14/63), Ashkenazi Jewish (ASJ) have 0.05% (3/63) and Amish (AMI) have 0.02% (1/63) of the deleterious TMPRSS2 variants

Closing Remarks

These results from the study are intriguing and I wish more independent content creators were discussing about this study. RFK Jr. isn’t the only one that made these comments. Dr. Lee Merrit went over this same study that RFK Jr. was referring to. I believe even Alex Jones made similar statements that make believe he was also referring to the same study. But RFK Jr. comes from a prominent American family and he was running for high positions so he was attacked.