Research volunteers won't be told of their coronavirus genetic risk

Biological samples

UK Biobank samples are kept in deep freeze

Wellcome Images

Half a million people who have volunteered their genetic information for scientific research will not be informed if researchers discover that they are genetically vulnerable to the coronavirus.

The UK Biobank has been collecting this information, along with other health data, for over a decade, to create a widely-used database. Now, the hospital data of participants who have received a test for covid-19 or died as a result of the coronavirus will be added to the dataset.

The hope is that researchers will be able to identify specific …

source: newscientist.com