It’s a big mystery why coronavirus can strike so many different people in so many ways.
Some people who are infected have no symptoms or get a mild to moderate case of the disease. About one in five people experience a much more severe illness and can go on to need hospital treatment, and a small number will die.
According to the BBC, scientists believe that the answer could be lying within our DNA.
Inside a warehouse in the UK is genetic material from half a million volunteers donated to Biobank.
Researchers have followed their health for more than a decade and will now track those with Covid-19.
Scientists are noticing tiny variations in patients' genetic material, in things like family genes like ones that are involved in making the outside of valves in our airways.
The cells act as a docking site for the virus, which allows it to enter and infect the cell.
It could be the differences in people’s DNA that changes this, making it easier for the virus to lock on and making it a more severe illness.
Increasingly, intensive care units are filling up and in some cases with younger people with no underlying health conditions. They are now the focus of a new study starting in New York.
For diseases like the flu, some people carry genetic variations that makes them seriously ill, which may be the case for coronavirus.
The rapid spread of Covid-19 means there is no shortage of cases to study. There is hope this will work in helping identify those most at risk and easing the path towards new treatments.
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