Hepatitis A susceptibility parallels high COVID-19 mortality

COVID-19 has become the biggest health problem of this century. It has been hypothesized that immunity against hepatitis A virus (HAV) may provide protection from COVID- 19. As of 10June 2020, the infection had spread to 213 countries, with 7.3 million people infected and 413,733 dead. This data was combined with the World Health Organization susceptibility classification on the worldwide prevalence of HAV, and the relationship between HAV susceptibility and COVID-19 mortality were analyzed. When the data from 213 countries were analyzed, it was found that there was a significant increasing trend in COVID-19 mortality rates by HAV susceptibility (P