LAUSR

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected 176million people and caused 3.8million deaths worldwide. Artificial intelligence applications and Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have helped us better understand factors that predict COVID-19 severity (The Severe Covid-19 GWAS Group, 2020). The pandemic has disproportionately affected African Americans, Hispanics, native Americans and other ethnic minorities with higher levels of hospitalization and higher mortality rates (Kirby, 2020). It is crucial to identify genetic alleles predicting severity and mortality among ethnic minorities. Interferon-induced transmembrane proteins (IFITMs) are a family of proteins that inhibit viral entry into host cells. The IFITM3-rs-12252 allele has been associated with severe disease and death with influenza and other viruses.We explore the potential role of this allele on the mortality and severity of illness of patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.