From the abstract of the paper it sounds like the connection with blood groups was known already [0] and that they actually discovered the link to Neanderthals

From the abstract of the paper it sounds like the connection with blood groups was known already [0] and that they actually discovered the link to Neanderthals [1] which makes it understandable that they want to talk about Neanderthals. If someone prefers their papers as PDFs, there is also one available on the website (I for one hate the mess that these "web papers" are): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2818-3.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2818-3.pdf [0] "A recent genetic association study identified a gene cluster on chromosome 3 as a risk locus for respiratory failure after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A separate study (COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative)2 comprising 3,199 hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and control individuals showed that this cluster is the major genetic risk factor for severe symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection and hospitalization." [1] "Here we show that the risk is conferred by a genomic segment of around 50 kilobases in size that is inherited from Neanderthals and is carried by around 50% of people in south Asia and around 16% of people in Europe."